Pope has gone 5-0 against Gainesville recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Wednesday. The Pope Greyhounds will look to defend their home court against the Gainesville Red Elephants at 6:00 p.m. Pope will be looking to keep their 14-game home win streak dating back to last season alive.
Pope is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Georgia's top teams: River Ridge, who was ranked third in their home state at the time (Pope was ranked second). Pope skirted past River Ridge 3-2.
Pope had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first two sets, they turned around to win the next three. The final score came out to 22-25, 17-25, 25-20, 25-15, 15-6.
Pope can attribute much of their success to Amanda Vlkovic, who had 27 digs, and Wynnie Abney, who had 17 digs.
Meanwhile, Gainesville lost 3-0 to Seckinger on Thursday. The Red Elephants have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
The match finished with set scores of 25-22, 25-22, 25-13.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from Prentice McGarvey, who had 15 digs and two aces. The team also got some help courtesy of Avery Lindsey, who had three digs and two aces.
Pope is on a roll lately: they've won 20 of their last 21 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 30-5 record this season. As for Gainesville, their loss dropped their record down to 20-14.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Wednesday's matchup: Pope has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 6.5 aces per game. However, it's not like Gainesville struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Everything went Pope's way against Gainesville in their previous matchup back in October of 2022, as Pope made off with a 3-0 victory. Does Pope have another victory up their sleeve, or will Gainesville turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
