The Niles North Vikings will head out on the road to challenge the Taft Eagles at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Niles North is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Illinois' top teams: Maine West, who was ranked 13th at the time (Niles North was ranked 20th). The Vikings came out on top against the Warriors by a score of 2-0 on Wednesday.
Niles North not only won, but also showed off some consistency: they kept Maine West between 19 and 21 points across their sets. The final score came out to 25-21, 25-19.
Meanwhile, Taft was able to grind out a solid victory over Fenwick on Wednesday, taking the game 2-0.
Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: Taft took both sets by at least ten points. The match finished with set scores of 25-10, 25-15.
Niles North is on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 21-5 record this season. As for Taft, their win bumped their record up to 21-6.
Niles North was able to grind out a solid victory over Taft when the teams last played back in April of 2024, winning 2-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Vikings since the squad 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
