The Hillcrest Rams will square off against the Northwestern Trojans at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Hillcrest took a loss when they played away from home on Thursday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Monday. They walked away with a 3-1 win over T.L. Hanna.
The final score came out to 25-14, 14-25, 25-17, 25-14.
Hillcrest was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 11 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in four consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, Northwestern and Indian Land met for a duel last Wednesday where Northwestern came out on top. Northwestern took their match against Indian Land 3-1. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Trojans.
The match finished with set scores of 25-15, 25-12, 18-25, 25-19.
Hillcrest's victory ended a five-game drought at home and bumped them up to 14-10-1. As for Northwestern, their win bumped their record up to 8-15.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's game: Hillcrest has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 5.3 aces per game. However, it's not like Northwestern struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9.2. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Hillcrest was able to grind out a solid victory over Northwestern in their previous matchup back in September of 2016, winning 2-0. Will Hillcrest repeat their success, or does Northwestern have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
