On Thursday, New Palestine faced Mt. Vernon in a battle between two of the state's top teams. The New Palestine Dragons fell 3-1 to the Mt. Vernon Marauders. The result was an unpleasant reminder to the Dragons of the 3-2 defeat they experienced in the pair's previous head-to-head fixture back in October of 2023.
New Palestine started the match hot and won the first set, but they struggled down the stretch and lost the last three. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 20-25, 25-18, 25-16, 25-16.
Mt. Vernon was led to victory by Aubry Dowling and Makenna Thompson. Dowling had 18 digs, while Thompson had five digs and four aces. The dominant performance gave Thompson a new career-high in aces.
New Palestine's loss dropped their record down to 27-4. As for Mt. Vernon, they have been performing well recently as they've won 15 of their last 18 games, which provided a nice bump to their 19-6 record this season.
Both are set to take part in some playoff action in their next matches. New Palestine will square off against Greenwood at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Greenwood is coming into the matchup with nine straight defeats on the road, meaning New Palestine will have to defend against a squad hungry for a win. As for Mt. Vernon, they will challenge NorthWood at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. Mt. Vernon will be looking to extend their current eight-game winning streak.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
