Two of the best defenses in Horizon League volleyball faced off in the first game of the 2021 Horizon League Tournament when the reigning champions, the Wright State Raiders, thrashed the Golden Grizzlies and moved on to the semi-finals Friday night. 

Prior to this game, the Grizzlies and the Raiders have faced off in 28 games, splitting them right down the middle with a record of 14-14. Despite the idea that this evenly matched record portrays, Wright State has dominated the matchup in their most recent encounters as they had won the last seven games in a row. 

Looking to continue their stranglehold on their all-time record, the Raiders would come into this game blazing by scoring four straight points before being stuffed at the net by the Grizzlies. The game would start off even before the Raiders would take control, and before you knew it, the score was 19-12 in the favor of the Raiders. 

The Raiders would end up taking the first set with a score of 25-15, making things look easy as they steamrolled through the Grizzlies with some high-powered offense. The second set would start off much like the first, with even play from both sides. The Golden Grizzlies would lose their footing though, as the game would swing back into the Raiders favor after a score would put them up 12-6. 

The Raiders would then win a 50/50 ball to increase the score to 15-8, forcing the Grizzlies to take a timeout in fear of letting the set slip out of their grasp. From this point on, everything would start going the Raiders’ way. Every rally, every 50/50 ball, just everything.

This would lead to the Raiders taking a 12-point lead, with a score of 20-8. The Grizzlies wouldn’t give up, showing their heart by stuffing a Raiders’ shot at the net but it wouldn’t stop the Raiders’ juggernaut of offensive play. The Golden Grizzlies would ultimately go down in the second set, losing with a score of 25-11. 

As the third set got underway, the Raiders came in with a fiery intensity and tried to close out the match in straight sets. The Golden Grizzlies would show more fight in the always pivotal third set, but the Raiders would still jump out to a dominant 10-5 lead. 

The Grizzlies would then attempt to stop the bleeding with a score of their own, and would end up rattling off three straight points in response before being stopped in kind by a Raiders’ point. The Raiders would then pull away again, establishing a 15-10 lead before the final Golden Grizzly timeout.