The St. Mary's Lancers will challenge the Portville Panthers at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
St. Mary's is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of New York's top teams: Fairport, who was ranked first in their home state at the time (St. Mary's was ranked seventh). St. Mary's lost 3-0 to Fairport on Friday. It was the first time this season that the Lancers let down their fans at home.
St. Mary's was held off the scoreboard, but that almost wasn't the case: they kept the second set very close. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-17, 25-22, 25-11.
The losing side was boosted by Sarina Notaro, who had 13 digs.
Meanwhile, Portville entered their tilt with Southwestern on Monday with nine consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with ten. They were the clear victor by a 3-0 margin over the Trojans.
One reason for the win was Portville's just kept getting better, winning each set by more points than the last. The match finished with set scores of 25-15, 25-8, 25-4.
Portville can attribute much of their success to Mia Rhinehart, who had 11 digs and four aces.
She wasn't the only good server: Portville was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 13 aces. That's the most aces they've posted in their last seven games.
St. Mary's loss ended a 34-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 32-3-2. As for Portville, their win was their eighth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 30-3-2.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Wednesday's match: St. Mary's has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 10.1 aces per game. However, it's not like Portville struggles in that department as they've been averaging 12. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
St. Mary's beat Portville 2-0 when the teams last played back in September of 2023. Does St. Mary's have another victory up their sleeve, or will Portville turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
