Abercrombie and De La Cruz set to fight for Athletes Unlimited title

Puerto Rican opposite Brittany Abercrombie and Dominican outside hitter Bethania De La Cruz are the main candidates to triumph in the fourth season of the American Athletes Unlimited women’s volleyball league after the conclusion of the fourth of five weeks of action in Mesa, Arizona.

Ranked first and second in the standings respectively, Abercrombie and De La Cruz have significant separation from the other title contenders and will likely battle among themselves in the fifth and final week of play, which will have matches taking place between Friday and Monday.

• Watch the Athletes Unlimited League live on VBTV

The Athletes Unlimited volleyball league has a unique format, unlike any other tournament, as players earn points individually for every action they make on the court and accumulate them over the five weeks of the season. At the end of the fifth week, the one with the most points will be crowned as the champion.

The league has a 44-player roster, which is used to form four different teams every week – four players are designated as captains each week and get to draft their teammates a few days before the start of the matches of that week.

Abercrombie had her least productive week in the season, collecting just 768 points as the team captained by her won two of their three matches held between last Friday and Monday, but still managed to continue at the top of the standings with 3,670 points.

De La Cruz helped the team she led have a perfect weekend in Mesa, winning all three matches, and amassed 784 points, cutting a small fraction of Abercrombie’s lead to continue in second place with 3,493 points.

Drews shines on week four

The top player in the week was American outside hitter Dani Drews, who helped Team De La Cruz go undefeated and registered 885 points, elevating her season total to 2,615 and now appearing in fourth place.

American outside hitter Madi Kingdon, who featured for Team Hentz, also made a big leap, collecting 759 points, and now appears in third place, with 2,654. Her team captain, American libero Morgan Hentz completes the top five, with 2,549 points, 528 of which were collected on week four.

The fifth and final week of the season will have Abercrombie, De La Cruz, Kingdon and Drews as team captains. They will pick their rosters on Tuesday, with matches set to be played on Friday, Sunday and Monday.

The two Friday matches – Team Kingdon vs. Team De La Cruz, at 19:00 local time (00:00 GMT, Saturday), and Team Abercrombie vs. Team Drews, at 21:30 local time (2:30 GMT, Saturday) – and the two Monday encounters – Team Drews vs. Team Kingdon, at 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT), and Team De La Cruz vs. Team Abercrombie, at 20:30 local time (1:30 GMT, Tuesday) – will be streamed live on VBTV.

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