Sterling and Valley are an even 5-5 against one another since September of 2016, but not for long. The Sterling Tigers will face off against the Valley Vikings at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Sterling sitting on five straight victories and Valley on four.
Last Thursday, Sterling got the win against Windsor Charter Academy by a conclusive 3-0.
Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: Sterling took every set by at least 11 points. The match finished with set scores of 25-10, 25-11, 25-14.
Sterling was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 23 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in seven consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Valley beat Strasburg 3-1 on Thursday.
Valley had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first set, they turned around to win the next three. The final score came out to 21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-16.
Sterling pushed their record up to 17-5 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home. As for Valley, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-7 record this season.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Tuesday's matchup: Sterling has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 10.8 aces per game. However, it's not like Valley struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Sterling was able to grind out a solid victory over Valley when the teams last played back in September of 2023, winning 3-1. The rematch might be a little tougher for Sterling since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
