The Abundant Life Challengers will face off against the Fall River Pirates at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Abundant Life is probably headed into the match with a chip on their shoulder considering Dodgeland just ended the team's 11-match winning streak last Tuesday. They fell just short of the Trojans by a score of 3-2.
In an exciting match in which no team claimed back-to-back wins, Abundant Life sadly wound up on the wrong side. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-19, 9-25, 25-16, 20-25, 15-13.
Despite the loss, Abundant Life had strong showings from Jada Grimes, who had 14 digs and four aces, and Brooke Genske, who had nine digs and three aces. Savannah Strubbe also deserves some recognition as she served her first ace of the season.
Meanwhile, it can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Fall River had no problem doing just that on Tuesday. They came out on top against the Panthers by a score of 3-1. The victory continues a trend for the Pirates in their matchups with the Panthers: they've now won nine in a row.
The final score came out to 26-24, 25-11, 23-25, 25-14.
Fall River found their leader in sophomore Aili Majocka, who had seven digs and three aces.
They weren't the only good servers: Fall River was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 15 aces. They are 10-3 when they serve at least ten aces.
Abundant Life's defeat dropped their record down to 31-6. As for Fall River, the win got them back to even at 16-16.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's matchup: Abundant Life has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 7.6 aces per game. However, it's not like Fall River struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.2 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Abundant Life skirted past Fall River 2-1 when the teams last played two weeks ago. Will the Challengers repeat their success, or do the Pirates have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
