Tolman and North Smithfield are an even 4-4 against one another since October of 2014, but not for long. The Tolman Tigers will take on the North Smithfield Northmen at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Last Tuesday, Tolman made easy work of Johnston and carried off a 3-0 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Tigers.
Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: Tolman took every set by at least nine points. After all that action, the final score was 25-10, 25-13, 25-16.
Tolman's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Davina Kodua, who had ten aces, five kills, and a block, and Mary Adeniyi, who had seven aces, six kills, and five digs. That's the most aces Kodua has posted since back in October of 2023.
Tolman was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 22 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least 12 aces in three consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, North Smithfield faced Pilgrim in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Monday. North Smithfield put the hurt on Pilgrim with a sharp 3-0 win. Winning may never get old, but the Northmen sure are getting used to it with their third in a row.
The final score came out to 25-4, 26-24, 25-13.
North Smithfield's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Grace Alecksiewicz led the charge by getting five digs and ten assists.
Tolman pushed their record up to 2-1 with that victory, which was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season. As for North Smithfield, their record is now 3-0.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's matchup: Tolman has serving mastered this season, having averaged 16 aces per game. However, it's not like North Smithfield struggles in that department as they've been averaging 16.7. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out. Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more volleyball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps