Howard is 10-0 against Long Reach since October of 2016, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Thursday. The Howard Lions will welcome the Long Reach Lightning at 6:00 p.m. Howard will be looking to keep their eight-game home win streak dating back to last season alive.
Howard is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Maryland's top teams: Atholton, who was ranked 20th in their home state at the time (Howard was ranked third). Howard blew past Atholton 3-0 on Tuesday.
The 3-0 score doesn't really reflect how close the match was: every set was decided by three points or less. After all that action, the final score was 26-24, 25-22, 25-22.
Howard got their win on the backs of several key players, but it was Miranda Ball out in front who had 16 digs and two aces. With that strong performance, Ball is now averaging an impressive 10.5 digs per game. The team also got some help courtesy of Riley Poholsky, who had six digs and three aces.
She wasn't the only good server: Howard was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 11 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least 11 aces in three consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, Long Reach didn't have done well against River Hill recently (they were 0-9 in their previous nine matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Tuesday. Long Reach won by a set and slipped past River Hill 3-2.
Long Reach was staring down a 2-0 deficit headed into the third set, but they rallied to take the next four for the win. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 18-25, 13-25, 25-14, 25-22, 15-9.
Howard's victory bumped their record up to 8-0. As for Long Reach, the win also got them back to even at 1-1.
Howard took their victory against Long Reach in their previous meeting back in November of 2023 by a conclusive 3-0. Does Howard have another victory up their sleeve, or will Long Reach turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
