The Tulare Western Mustangs will take on the Hanford Bullpups at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Tulare Western is headed into the match having just posted their closest victory since August 27th on Monday. They had just enough and edged out Dinuba 3-2.
Tulare Western wouldn't go down easily and took Dinuba 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 24-26, 25-23, 25-16, 19-25, 15-11.
Hanford won the last time they faced Tulare Union and Miranda Kunz did her part to make sure it happened again. The Bullpups walked away with a 3-1 win over the Tribe on Monday with plenty of help from Kunz, who had 26 digs and five aces. She has been hot for a while, having posted ten or more digs the last nine times she's played.
The final score came out to 25-20, 16-25, 25-9, 25-11.
Tulare Western better focus on containing Daniela Rodriguez and Hazel Agnew as the pair were huge in Hanford's win. Rodriguez had 11 assists and six digs, while Agnew had nine digs and two aces.
Hanford was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 15 aces. That's the most aces they've managed all season.
Hanford has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 16-11 record this season. As for Tulare Western, their victory bumped their record up to 13-17.
Tulare Western couldn't quite get it done against Hanford when the teams last played last Monday as they fell 3-1. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Kunz, who had 21 digs and three aces. Now that the Mustangs know the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
