The Valley View Cougars will square off against the Scranton Knights at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. The timing isn't great for Valley View: they have been struggling with four straight losses at home, while Scranton has snatched up three consecutive wins on the road.
Having struggled with five defeats in a row, Valley View finally turned things around against Mid Valley on Monday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 3-2 win over the Spartans.
Valley View was staring down a 2-1 deficit headed into the fourth set, but they rallied to take the next two for the win. The match finished with set scores of 25-14, 16-25, 20-25, 25-10, 15-12.
Valley View relied on the efforts of Layla Marino, who had 11 aces and four digs, and Madison Hallock, who had three aces and 27 assists. That's the most aces Marino has posted in her last seven contests.
Valley View was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 20 aces. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved they're ace total in three consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, Scranton didn't have quite enough to beat Dunmore on Tuesday and fell 3-2.
Scranton actually scored more points across those five sets (111-99), but sadly they still had to settle for second. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-23, 11-25, 25-22, 20-25, 18-16.
Scranton might have lost, but man, Kyleah Wilson was a machine: she had 12 digs and three aces. With that strong performance, Wilson is now averaging an impressive 12.5 assists per game.
Valley View's victory ended a three-game drought on the road and puts them at 7-10. As for Scranton, their loss dropped their record down to 8-10.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's game: Valley View has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 13 aces per game. However, it's not like Scranton struggles in that department as they've been averaging 15.8. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Valley View suffered a grim 3-0 defeat to Scranton in their previous matchup back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Scranton's Mia Carachilio, who had 19 digs and three aces. Now that Valley View knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
