The Cheyenne Desert Shields will head out on the road to take on the Centennial Bulldogs at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.
Cheyenne was handed a three-set defeat in their previous outing, but that didn't affect their clutch gene on Thursday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Mater Academy East Las Vegas, sneaking past 3-2. The Desert Shields haven't had any issues with the Knights recently, as the game was their third consecutive win against them.
Cheyenne was actually outscored in aggregate across those five sets (106-102), but they still managed to win. The match finished with set scores of 25-22, 21-25, 16-25, 25-23, 15-11.
Meanwhile, Centennial faced Sierra Vista in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Tuesday. The Bulldogs had just enough and edged out the Mountain Lions 3-2. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Bulldogs have posted since March 22nd.
Centennial wouldn't go down easily and took Sierra Vista into a fifth set where they got it done with a four-point win. The final score came out to 22-25, 25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 15-11.
Centennial's win came from a few key players Cheyenne will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was RJ Regalado, who had 25 assists and two aces. What's more, he posted two digs, the most he's had over his last five games. Another player making a difference was Josh Wagner, who had ten digs and two aces.
Centennial was lethal from the service line and finished the game with ten aces. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Sierra Vista only served three aces.
Cheyenne picked up their first home win, bumping their record up to 2-21. As for Centennial, they are on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 21-8 record this season.
Cheyenne couldn't quite get it done against Centennial in their previous meeting back in March as they fell 2-0. Can the Desert Shields avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
