The Allentown Central Catholic Vikings and the Southern Lehigh Spartans are set to duel on Thursday. Both teams are coming into the game red-hot, with Allentown Central Catholic sitting on 19 straight victories and Southern Lehigh on four.
Allentown Central Catholic is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Monday. They walked away with a 3-1 win over Bethlehem Catholic.
Allentown Central Catholic 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 22-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-13.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Allentown Central Catholic to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jena Odenthal, who had 19 digs, two aces, and a kill.
Pottsville was looking to beat Southern Lehigh like they did the last time the pair played, but Pottsville didn't take Mia Stanten into account. Southern Lehigh put the hurt on Pottsville with a sharp 3-0 victory on Monday thanks in part to Stanten, who had 22 digs. She has been hot recently, having posted 11 or more digs the last three times she's played.
Southern Lehigh never let Pottsville on the board, but things got pretty close in the third set. The match finished with set scores of 25-14, 25-12, 27-25.
Allentown Central Catholic's win bumped their record up to 23-0-1. As for Southern Lehigh, their victory bumped their record up to 30-2-3.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's contest: Allentown Central Catholic has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 11.4 aces per game. However, it's not like Southern Lehigh struggles in that department as they've been averaging 10.3. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Allentown Central Catholic came up short against Southern Lehigh in their previous matchup back in October of 2021, falling 2-0. Can Allentown Central Catholic avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
