After both having extra time off, the Gonzales Apaches and the Karnes City Badgers will shake off the cobwebs and challenge one another at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Gonzales is no doubt hoping to put an end to an eight-game streak of away losses dating back to last season.
Having struggled with four defeats in a row, Gonzales finally turned things around against Nixon-Smiley last Friday. They blew past the Mustangs 3-0. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest victory the Apaches have posted since October 17, 2023.
A big factor in the win was Gonzales' feisty defense: they held Nixon-Smiley to fewer and fewer points set over set. The final score came out to 25-20, 25-15, 25-14.
Gonzales relied on the efforts of Blakely Mercer, who had eight digs and three aces, and Camarillo Hailey, who had five digs and three aces. The dominant performance gave Mercer a new career-high in aces.
Gonzales was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 11 aces. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 0 aces per game earlier this season, but in their last five contests they've averaged 4.6.
Falls City typically has all the answers at home, but on Tuesday Karnes City proved too difficult a challenge. They walked away with a 3-1 win over the Beavers. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Badgers.
Karnes City had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first set, they turned around to win the next three. The match finished with set scores of 19-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-20.
Gonzales' victory ended a six-game drought at home dating back to last season and bumped them up to 2-17. As for Karnes City, their record is now 9-18.
Gonzales took their win against Karnes City in their previous meeting back in September of 2019 by a conclusive 3-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Gonzales since the team 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
