Madison Central has enjoyed the comforts of home their last three games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will venture away from home to square off against the West Lauderdale Knights at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. Madison Central will be strutting in after a win while West Lauderdale will be coming in after a loss.
Madison Central is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Mississippi's top teams: Starkville, who was ranked 25th in their home state at the time (Madison Central was ranked 11th). Madison Central put the hurt on Starkville with a sharp 3-0 victory on Tuesday.
Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: Madison Central took every set by at least nine points. The final score came out to 25-16, 25-15, 25-12.
Madison Central's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Anna Hinman, who had five digs and two aces. Hinman is also on a roll when it comes to assists, as she's now posted eight or more in the last eight games she's played.
Madison Central was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 13 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least 13 aces in four consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, West Lauderdale unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak on Tuesday. They fell just short of Newton County by a score of 3-2.
West Lauderdale actually scored more points across those five sets (106-104), but sadly they still had to settle for second. After all that action, the final score was 25-21, 26-24, 21-25, 17-25, 15-11.
Madison Central's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 12-4. As for West Lauderdale, their defeat dropped their record down to 14-8.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Saturday's contest: Madison Central has serving mastered this season, having averaged 11.1 aces per game. However, it's not like West Lauderdale struggles in that department as they've been averaging 12. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Madison Central took their win against West Lauderdale in their previous matchup back in September of 2023 by a conclusive 3-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Madison Central 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
