After both having extra time off, the Richards Panthers and the Chester Yellowjackets will shake off the cobwebs and take on one another at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Last Friday, Richards made easy work of Leggett and carried off a 3-0 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Panthers.
The 3-0 score doesn't show just how dominant Richards was: they took every set by at least 16 points. The match finished with set scores of 25-5, 25-9, 25-7.
Richards can attribute much of their success to Caroline Pool, who had 16 aces, a kill, and 14 assists. The dominant performance gave Pool a new career-high in aces.
Meanwhile, Chester came tearing into Friday's game with ten straight wins and they left with even more momentum. They blew past the Hornets 3-0.
Chester's got stronger as the match went on, holding Goodrich to fewer and fewer points set over set. The final score came out to 25-7, 25-5, 25-2.
Chester relied on the efforts of Sydney Brock, who had 12 digs and seven aces, and Emma Byrd, who had four digs and two aces. Byrd is also on a roll when it comes to assists, as she's now posted 17 or more in the last 26 games she's played dating back to last season.
Chester couldn't miss and finished the game having scored on 58.3% of their attack attempts. That's a new trend for them: their average hitting percentage was 16.9% earlier this season, but in their last five matches they've averaged 37.5%.
Richards is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 28-11 record this season. As for Chester, they pushed their record up to 34-9 with the win, which was their 17th straight at home dating back to last season.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's matchup: Richards has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 10.5 aces per game. However, it's not like Chester struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9.8. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Richards might still be hurting after the 3-0 defeat they got from Chester in their previous matchup two weeks ago. Can Richards 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
