The Chiles Timberwolves will take on the Crestview Bulldogs at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Chiles is coming into the matchup hot, having won their last nine games.
On Wednesday, Chiles made easy work of Maclay and carried off a 3-0 victory.
The 3-0 score doesn't show just how dominant Chiles was: they took every set by at least 11 points. The final score came out to 25-14, 25-8, 25-13.
Chiles' success was spearheaded by the efforts of Madison Joyner, who had 12 digs and four aces, and Natalie Gibson, who had eight digs and three aces. That's the most aces Gibson has posted since back in September. Allie Higgins also deserves some recognition as she posted her first assist of the season.
They weren't the only good servers: Chiles was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 11 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least six aces in three consecutive contests.
For some reason, the away team has come away with the win the last five times Crestview and Pace have met, but the home crowd finally got their W last Tuesday. The Bulldogs fell just short of the Patriots by a score of 3-2. The Bulldogs haven't had much luck with the Patriots recently, as the team has come up short the last three times they've met.
Crestview wouldn't go down easily and took Pace into a fifth set but they suffered a heartbreaking two-point loss. The match finished with set scores of 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 18-25, 19-17.
Chiles will have to contain Kelsey Griffin as she made an impact in Crestview's last game. She had 32 digs. Griffin has been hot for a while, having posted 11 or more digs the last 17 times she's played.
Crestview's defeat dropped their record down to 13-11. As for Chiles, their win bumped their record up to 23-1.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's match: Chiles has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 8.7 aces per game. However, it's not like Crestview struggles in that department as they've been averaging 6.8 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Chiles was able to grind out a solid victory over Crestview when the teams last played back in October of 2019, winning 3-1. Will the Timberwolves repeat their success, or do the Bulldogs have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
