The Valencia Jaguars will face off against the Del Norte Knights at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. Valencia will be strutting in after a victory while Del Norte will be coming in after a loss.
Valencia took a loss when they played away from home on Tuesday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Thursday. They blew past Highland 3-0.
Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: Valencia took every set by at least 11 points. The match finished with set scores of 25-6, 25-14, 25-9.
Valencia found their leader in underclassman Brooke Romero, who had 15 aces and 16 assists. Those 15 aces gave Romero a new career-high.
Valencia was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 24 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in five consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Del Norte and Valley met for a duel on Thursday where Del Norte couldn't get it done. Del Norte lost 3-0 to Valley. The Knights have struggled against the Vikings recently, as their game on Thursday was their ninth consecutive lost matchup.
While Del Norte was kept off the board, it wasn't for a lack of trying: they cut into Valley's winning margin in every set. The match finished with set scores of 25-8, 25-11, 25-12.
Valencia has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 9-7 record this season. As for Del Norte, their defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 6-9.
Valencia was able to grind out a solid win over Del Norte when the teams last played back in September of 2021, winning 3-1. Will Valencia repeat their success, or does Del Norte have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
