The Osage City Indians will square off against the Riverton Rams at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Osage City sitting on eight straight victories and Riverton on 12.
On Saturday, it was close, but Osage City sidestepped Frontenac for a 2-1 win.
It was an exciting match in which no team won back-to-back sets, but at the end of the day Osage City got the one that really mattered. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-17, 21-25, 25-18.
Emory Speece and Jada Ruiz were among the main playmakers for Osage City as the former had 18 digs and one assist and the latter had eight digs and three aces. That's the most aces Ruiz has posted since back in September.
Meanwhile, with a playoff win on the line, Riverton rose to the challenge on Saturday. They walked away with a 2-0 victory over the Trojans. Give some credit to the fans of both teams: the last six times they've met, the home team has come away the winner.
Riverton not only won, but also showed off some consistency: they kept Girard between 18 and 20 points across their sets. The final score came out to 25-20, 25-18.
Osage City's win bumped their record up to 27-12. As for Riverton, their victory bumped their record up to 36-4-1.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's match: Osage City has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 5.1 aces per game. However, it's not like Riverton struggles in that department as they've been averaging 6.5 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Osage City came up short against Riverton in their previous meeting back in October of 2024, falling 2-0. Can the Indians avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
