The Murrieta Mesa Rams will challenge the Great Oak Wolfpack at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Great Oak took a loss in their last match and will be looking to turn the tables on Murrieta Mesa, who comes in off a win.
Murrieta Mesa took a loss when they played away from home on Thursday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Tuesday. They walked away with a 3-1 win over Vista Murrieta.
Murrieta Mesa had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first set, they turned around to win the next three. The match finished with set scores of 23-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-17.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Murrieta Mesa to victory, but perhaps none more so than Laila Garcia, who had five digs and four aces. That's the most aces Garcia has posted since back in September. The team also got some help courtesy of Analei Bradley, who hit 71.4% for five kills and seven digs, two aces, and one block.
They weren't the only good servers: Murrieta Mesa was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 11 aces. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Vista Murrieta only served seven.
Meanwhile, Great Oak was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their eighth straight defeat. They lost 3-0 to Temecula Valley.
Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-21, 25-18, 25-12.
Murrieta Mesa will have to keep a close watch on Jadin Mantiply and Sydney Danylchuk, a pair of players who had a big impact on Great Oak's prior game. Mantiply had 11 assists and six digs, while Danylchuk had four digs and two aces.
Great Oak's loss dropped their record down to 7-13. As for Murrieta Mesa, their victory bumped their record up to 28-6-2.
Murrieta Mesa came out on top in a nail-biter against Great Oak in their previous matchup back in September, sneaking past 3-2. Will the Rams repeat their success, or do the Wolfpack have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
