The Messalonskee Eagles will face off against the Gardiner Tigers at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Messalonskee has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the matchup with three straight losses, while Gardiner will come in with six straight wins.
Last Wednesday, Messalonskee didn't have quite enough to beat Cony and fell 3-2.
Messalonskee wouldn't go down easily and took Cony into a fifth set but they suffered a heartbreaking seven-point loss. The match finished with set scores of 26-24, 16-25, 23-25, 25-16, 15-8.
Messalonskee's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Sofia Derosby, who had 55 digs, and Anastacia Grier, who had 12 digs, five aces, and five aces. Derosby is on a roll when it comes to digs, as she's now had 29 or more in the last four games she's played dating back to last season. The team also got some help courtesy of Jada Forney, who had 15 digs and five aces.
She wasn't the only good server: Messalonskee was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 20 aces. That's the most aces they've posted since back in October of 2023.
Meanwhile, Gardiner beat Nokomis 3-1 on Wednesday.
Gardiner was especially dominant in the first set. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-11, 21-25, 25-19, 25-18.
Messalonskee's loss dropped their record down to 1-3. As for Gardiner, they pushed their record up to 6-1 with the victory, which was their fourth straight on the road.
Messalonskee took their win against Gardiner when the teams last played back in September of 2023 by a conclusive 3-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Messalonskee since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
