East Greenwich hasn't had much luck against North Kingstown recently, but that could start to change on Monday. The Avengers will welcome the Skippers at 6:30 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
East Greenwich is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Rhode Island's top teams: Classical, who was ranked third at the time (East Greenwich was ranked 16th). The Avengers had just enough and edged out the Purple 3-2. The victory was a breath of fresh air for the Avengers as it put an end to their three-game losing streak.
The match was a true back-and-forth as no team won consecutive sets, but in the end it was East Greenwich who won the one that mattered. The final score came out to 25-23, 21-25, 25-21, 18-25, 15-10.
Meanwhile, North Kingstown strolled into their game on Friday with a perfect record and they left with the same. Everything went their way against Cranston East as they made off with a 3-0 win.
North Kingstown's got stronger as the match went on, holding Cranston East to fewer and fewer points set over set. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-22, 25-18, 25-16.
East Greenwich better keep an eye on Stephen Dufour. He was instrumental in North Kingstown's win, getting 14 digs and three assists.
East Greenwich's victory bumped their record up to 6-7. As for North Kingstown, their win was their 19th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 20-0.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Monday's game: East Greenwich has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 9.8 aces per game. However, it's not like North Kingstown struggles in that department as they've been averaging 5.2 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
East Greenwich suffered a grim 3-0 defeat to North Kingstown in their previous meeting back in April. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of the Skippers' Evan Shea, who had eight digs and two aces. Now that the Avengers know the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
