The Brighton Bengals will challenge the Springville Red Devils at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
ETHAN MERKLEY
| 04/28/26 vs Skyline | 12 |
| 04/25/26 vs Copper Hills | 21 |
| 04/25/26 vs Skyridge | 13 |
Brighton extended their winning streak to five games thanks to a huge performance from ETHAN MERKLEY. Everything went the Bengals' way against Skyline on Tuesday as they made off with a 3-0 victory with plenty of help from MERKLEY, who had 12 assists and four digs. He has been hot recently, having posted 12 or more assists the last three times he's played.
One reason for the win was Brighton's just kept getting better, winning each set by more points than the last. The match finished with set scores of 25-21, 25-20, 25-19.
Meanwhile, it can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Springville had no problem doing just that on Saturday. They were the clear victors by a 3-0 margin over the Knights.
Springville walked away with the win (and looked especially good in the second set). Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-18, 25-14, 25-19.
Brighton better focus on containing Quinn Laurie and Nolen Snead as the pair were huge in Springville's win. Laurie had three digs and one block, while Snead had five digs and four aces. Those four aces gave Snead a new career-high. Christian Hopkins also deserves some recognition as he served his first aces of the season.
Springville's victory bumped their record up to 14-10. As for Brighton, their win bumped their record up to 19-9.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Wednesday's match: Brighton has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 4.8 aces per game. However, it's not like Springville struggles in that department as they've been averaging an even more impressive 5.6 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Brighton came out on top in a nail-biter against Springville in their previous meeting back in March of 2024, sneaking past 2-1. Do the Bengals have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Red Devils turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
