The Narraguagus Knights are on the road again on Friday to play the Bucksport Golden Bucks at 5:30 p.m. Narraguagus will be strutting in after a win while Bucksport will be coming in after a loss.
Narraguagus is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Maine's top teams: Machias, who was ranked ninth in their home state at the time (Narraguagus was ranked fourth). Narraguagus won by a set and slipped past Machias 3-2.
The match was a true back-and-forth as no team won consecutive sets, but in the end it was Narraguagus who won the one that mattered. The match finished with set scores of 25-20, 21-25, 25-14, 24-26, 15-6.
Narraguagus' success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Ivy Stanwood led the charge by getting 13 digs. The team also got some help courtesy of Eileen Berry, who had 12 digs.
Narraguagus was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 16 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least 11 aces in 25 consecutive contests dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Bucksport was not able to break out of their rough patch on Wednesday as the team picked up their third straight defeat. They fell just short of Woodland by a score of 3-2.
Bucksport took a 2-1 lead headed into the fourth set, but sadly they lost the next two. The final score came out to 25-21, 19-25, 21-25, 25-15, 15-9.
Despite their loss, Bucksport saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Jetta Shook, who had 21 digs, nine kills, three aces, and a block, was perhaps the best of all. With that strong performance, Shook is now averaging an impressive 10.7 digs per game. Another player making a difference was Marina Keene, who had 29 digs and three aces.
Narraguagus pushed their record up to 10-1 with the victory, which was their 11th straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Bucksport, their defeat dropped their record down to 2-7.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's game: Narraguagus has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 20.3 aces per game. However, it's not like Bucksport struggles in that department as they've been averaging 14. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Everything went Narraguagus' way against Bucksport when the teams last played back in October of 2023, as Narraguagus made off with a 3-0 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Narraguagus since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
