The North Decatur Chargers are taking a road trip to square off against the Union County Patriots at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. North Decatur will be strutting in after a victory while Union County will be coming in after a defeat.
North Decatur will bounce into Thursday's contest after beating Triton Central, who they hadn't topped in nine consecutive meetings. North Decatur had just enough and edged Triton Central out 3-2. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Chargers.
The match was a true back-and-forth as no team won consecutive sets, but in the end it was North Decatur who won the one that mattered. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-20, 12-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-9.
North Decatur 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 six aces in seven consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, after a string of four wins, Union County's good fortune finally ran out on Tuesday. They fell just short of Hagerstown by a score of 3-2. While the Patriots didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Tigers 26-24 in the first set.
Union County took a 2-1 lead headed into the fourth set, but sadly they lost the next two. The match finished with set scores of 24-26, 25-23, 19-25, 25-20, 15-10.
Despite the loss, Union County got top-tier performance from Emma Wooley, who had 20 digs, seven kills, and 45 assists. Wooley is on a roll when it comes to digs, as she's now had ten or more in the last six games she's played dating back to last season.
North Decatur's win was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 14-11. As for Union County, their defeat ended a five-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 12-9.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's game: North Decatur has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 11.2 aces per game. However, it's not like Union County struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9.7. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
North Decatur beat Union County 3-1 in their previous meeting back in October of 2023. The rematch might be a little tougher for North Decatur 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
