Xavier College Prep is 8-2 against Horizon since October of 2014, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Xavier College Prep Gators will be staying on the road to face off against the Horizon Huskies at 11:00 a.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Xavier College Prep is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Arizona's top teams: Millennium, who was ranked 11th in their home state at the time (Xavier College Prep was ranked first). Xavier College Prep blew past Millennium 3-0 on Thursday.
Xavier College Prep's not only won, but also showed off some consistency: keeping Millennium between 14 and 16 points across their sets. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-16, 25-14, 25-16.
Tessa Larkin was nothing short of spectacular: she had 21 kills, 15 digs, two blocks, and two aces. That's the most aces she has posted since back in September. The team also got some help courtesy of Vivian Hickman, who had eight kills, seven digs, and a block.
Xavier College Prep couldn't miss and finished the game having scored on 44.1% of their attack attempts. That's a new trend for them: their average hitting percentage was 28.8% earlier this season, but in their last five games they've averaged 35.1%.
Meanwhile, Horizon had already won four in a row and they went ahead and made it five last Thursday. They walked away with a 3-1 victory over the Firebirds.
Horizon was especially dominant in the fourth set. The match finished with set scores of 25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 25-13.
Ava Lambert and Avery Ashcraft were among the main playmakers for Horizon as the former had 20 digs and ten assists and the latter had nine digs and 20 assists. Ashcraft is on a roll when it comes to assists, as she's now posted 16 or more in the last five games she's played dating back to last season.
Xavier College Prep's win was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 15-1. As for Horizon, their victory bumped their record up to 7-3.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's match: Xavier College Prep has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 8.2 aces per game. However, it's not like Horizon struggles in that department as they've been averaging 10.2. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Xavier College Prep came up short against Horizon in their previous meeting back in October of 2021, falling 2-0. Can Xavier College Prep avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
