The Van Vandals will head out on the road to take on the Canton Eagles at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Van comes in on ten and Canton on five.
On Tuesday, Van beat Lindale 3-1.
Van was actually outscored in aggregate across those four sets (94-92), but they still managed to win. The match finished with set scores of 28-26, 25-19, 13-25, 26-24.
Caydence Thompson
| 10/07/25 vs Lindale | 19 |
| 10/03/25 @ Mabank | 7 |
| 09/30/25 vs Athens | 6 |
| 09/26/25 vs Brownsboro | 9 |
| 09/19/25 @ Kemp | 1 |
| 09/16/25 vs Canton | 27 |
Van's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Caydence Thompson, who had 19 digs and two aces, and Averi Crouch, who had seven digs. That's the most digs Thompson has posted over her last six contests.
If Brownsboro wanted to avenge their loss from the last time they played Canton, they should've done a better job of containing Mallory Alexander. The Eagles came out on top against the Bears by a score of 3-1 on Tuesday for which the team can thank Alexander, who had 24 assists and seven digs. She is on a roll when it comes to assists, as she's now posted 14 or more in each of the last seven games she's played.
Canton had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first set, they turned around to win the next three. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 23-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-18.
Canton's win came from a few key players Van will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Kate McClendon, who had 11 digs.
Van's record now sits at 26-7. As for Canton, their record is now 25-13.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's match: Van has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 6.8 aces per game. However, it's not like Canton struggles in that department as they've been averaging 6.4 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Van skirted past Canton 3-2 when the teams last played back in September. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Vandals since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
