The Union County Patriots will take on the North Decatur Chargers at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Union County is probably headed into the contest with a chip on their shoulder considering Hagerstown just ended the team's four-game winning streak on Tuesday. They fell just short of the Tigers by a score of 3-2. While the Patriots didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Tigers 26-24 in the first set.
Union County took a 2-1 lead headed into the fourth set, but sadly they lost the next two. The match finished with set scores of 24-26, 25-23, 19-25, 25-20, 15-10.
Union County might have lost, but man, Emma Wooley was a machine: she had 20 digs, seven kills, and 45 assists. Wooley is on a roll when it comes to digs, as she's now had ten or more in the last six games she's played dating back to last season.
Even though they lost, Union County was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 12 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least six aces in six consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, North Decatur hadn't done well against Triton Central recently (they were 1-8 in their previous nine matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Tuesday. North Decatur narrowly escaped with a win as the squad sidled past Triton Central 3-2. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Chargers.
The match was a true back-and-forth as no team won consecutive sets, but in the end it was North Decatur who won the one that mattered. The match finished with set scores of 25-20, 12-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-9.
Union County's defeat ended a five-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 12-9. As for North Decatur, their victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 14-11.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's game: Union County has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 9.7 aces per game. However, it's not like North Decatur struggles in that department as they've been averaging 11.2. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Union County came up short against North Decatur when the teams last played back in October of 2023, falling 3-1. Will Union County have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more volleyball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
