The St. Augustine Saints will head out on the road to challenge the Clairemont Chieftains at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. St. Augustine will aim to continue their three-game streak of scoring more sets each match than the last.
St. Augustine will bounce into Friday's contest after beating Francis Parker, who they had gone 1-7 against in their eight prior meetings. St. Augustine sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 3-2 win over Francis Parker on Wednesday. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Saints have posted against the Lancers since April 5, 2022.
St. Augustine got the W, but it wasn't easy, at least in the first set. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 29-31, 18-25, 28-26, 25-21, 15-12.
If Olympian wanted to avenge their loss from the last time they played Clairemont, they should've done a better job of containing Gabe Tocco. Clairemont blew past Olympian 3-0 on Tuesday thanks in part to Tocco, who had ten kills, five blocks, and three aces. Those three aces gave him a new career-high.
Clairemont's got stronger as the match went on, holding Olympian to fewer and fewer points set over set. The final score came out to 25-16, 25-15, 25-14.
Clairemont's win came from a few key players St. Augustine will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Makoa Miner, who had 13 kills. Miner is crushing it when it comes to kills: he's had at least five every time he's taken the court this season.
The win got St. Augustine back to even at 9-9. As for Clairemont, the victory snapped their losing streak at three games and leaves them with a 16-4 record.
St. Augustine was able to grind out a solid win over Clairemont when the teams last played back in March of 2024, winning 3-1. Will St. Augustine repeat their success, or does Clairemont has a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
