Volleyball Game Preview: Manteno Panthers vs. Coal City Coalers

The Manteno Panthers will head out to face off against the Coal City Coalers at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Manteno is probably headed into the match with a chip on their shoulder considering Wilmington just ended the team's 14-match winning streak on Tuesday. They fell 2-0 to the Wildcats. Considering the last time the Panthers couldn't score was back in September, the team can't take the result too hard.

Manteno was held off the scoreboard, but that almost wasn't the case: they kept the first set very close. The match finished with set scores of 25-22, 25-16.

Meanwhile, Coal City earned a 2-0 win over Reed-Custer on Tuesday. The Coalers haven't had any issues with the Comets recently, as the game was their seventh consecutive victory against them.

The 2-0 score doesn't show just how dominant Coal City was: they took both sets by at least 13 points. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-11, 25-12.

Coal City's win bumped their record up to 14-12-1. As for Manteno, their defeat was their first in the conference, dropping their conference record down to 9-1 and their overall record down to 20-4.

Manteno was able to grind out a solid victory over Coal City in their previous matchup back in September, winning 2-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Panthers since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.