The Merritt Island Mustangs will challenge the Santa Fe Raiders at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Merritt Island sitting on 21 straight wins and Santa Fe on five.
Merritt Island is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Saturday. They were the clear victors by a 3-0 margin over Satellite.
One reason for the win was Merritt Island's just kept getting better, winning each set by more points than the last. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-22, 25-19, 25-15.
Annabelle Jones
| 10/25/25 vs Satellite | 7 |
| 08/18/25 @ Titusville | 5 |
| 08/30/25 vs La Cueva | 4 |
| 10/02/24 vs Satellite | 4 |
| 09/18/24 vs Edgewood | 4 |
Annabelle Jones and Khloe Horton were among the main playmakers for Merritt Island as the former had seven aces and four digs and the latter had six digs and one assist. Those seven aces gave Jones a new career-high.
They weren't the only good servers: Merritt Island was lethal from the service line and finished the match with ten aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in 12 consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, Santa Fe got the win against Bishop Moore on Saturday by a conclusive 3-0.
Santa Fe never let Bishop Moore on the board, but things got pretty close in the second set. The final score came out to 25-21, 25-22, 25-18.
Merritt Island's victory bumped their record up to 27-2. As for Santa Fe, their win bumped their record up to 20-9.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Wednesday's match: Merritt Island has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 8.8 aces per game. However, it's not like Santa Fe struggles in that department as they've been averaging 6.1 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Merritt Island took their victory against Santa Fe when the teams last played back in October of 2024 by a conclusive 3-0 score. Do the Mustangs have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Raiders turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
