After both having extra time off, the Fernley Vaqueros and the Dayton Dust Devils will shake off the cobwebs and hit the court against one another at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Fernley proved they can win big on Friday (they won by three) and on Saturday they proved they can win the close ones too. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Spring Creek, sneaking past 3-2. The Vaqueros haven't had any issues with the Spartans recently, as the game was their third consecutive victory against them.
Fernley wouldn't go down easily and took Spring Creek into a fifth set where they got it done with a four-point win. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-13, 25-17, 20-25, 22-25, 15-11.
Meanwhile, Dayton earned a 3-1 win over Elko on Saturday.
While Dayton might've won, it sure wasn't easy: Elko scored at least 21 points in every set they played. The final score came out to 25-21, 25-21, 27-29, 25-21.
Fernley better focus on containing ARACELI ACOSTA and ALISI TULIMAFUA-CURRAN as the pair were huge in Dayton's win. ACOSTA had 20 digs and three aces, while TULIMAFUA-CURRAN had 21 assists and 11 digs. Those 21 assists gave TULIMAFUA-CURRAN a new career-high.
Dayton 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 four consecutive matchups.
Fernley's victory bumped their record up to 19-5. As for Dayton, their win bumped their record up to 14-6.
Fernley was able to grind out a solid victory over Dayton when the teams last played back in October of 2024, winning 3-1. Do the Vaqueros have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Dust Devils turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
