The St. Mary's Rams are on the road again on Saturday to play the Rocklin Thunder at 7:00 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
St. Mary's is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They had just enough and edged Folsom out 3-2.
St. Mary's took Folsom into a fifth set where they got it done with a 12-point win. The match finished with set scores of 25-9, 25-23, 15-25, 23-25, 15-3.
St. Mary's can attribute much of their success to Bella Gutierrez, who had 19 digs and two aces, and Rachel Nemee, who had 13 digs. That's the most aces Gutierrez has posted in her last eight games.
St. Mary's was lethal from the service line and finished the game with ten aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least six aces in three consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Rocklin waltzed into their matchup on Tuesday with ten straight wins... but they left with 11. They came out on top against the Eagles by a score of 3-1.
Rocklin was especially dominant in the third set. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-23, 26-28, 25-11, 25-16.
Rocklin relied on the efforts of Devon Schweitzer, who had seven digs and three aces, and Ava Pabalate, who had eight digs and 43 assists. Pabalate has been hot for a while, having posted 14 or more assists the last 35 times she's played.
Rocklin has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 18 of their last 19 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 37-4 record this season. As for St. Mary's, their record is now 26-6.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Saturday's game: St. Mary's has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 8.9 aces per game. However, it's not like Rocklin struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.9. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
St. Mary's took their win against Rocklin when the teams last played back in November of 2023 by a conclusive 3-0. Does St. Mary's have another victory up their sleeve, or will Rocklin turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
