Masuk has gone a perfect 8-0 against Kolbe-Cathedral recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Thursday. The Panthers will be playing in front of their home fans against the Cougars at 6:00 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Masuk is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Connecticut's top teams: Newtown, who was ranked 15th at the time (Masuk was ranked ninth). The Panthers came out on top against the Nighthawks by a score of 3-1 on Monday. The victory continues a trend for the Panthers in their matchups with the Nighthawks: they've now won six in a row.
While Masuk might've won, it sure wasn't easy: Newtown scored at least 18 points in every set they played. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-18, 20-25, 25-22, 25-19.
Jack Hanna
| 05/12/25 @ Newtown | 6 |
| 05/09/25 @ Shelton | 5 |
| 05/07/25 @ New Milford | 2 |
| 05/05/25 vs Joel Barlow | 3 |
| 05/02/25 @ Kolbe-Cathedral | 4 |
| + 2 more games |
Among those leading the charge was Jack Hanna, who had six digs and two aces. That's the most digs he has posted over his last seven matches.
Meanwhile, Kolbe-Cathedral got the win against New Milford on Tuesday by a conclusive 3-0. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Cougars.
Kolbe-Cathedral never let New Milford on the board, but things got pretty close in the third set. The final score came out to 25-21, 25-16, 26-24.
Kolbe-Cathedral's win came from a few key players Masuk will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Angel Gomez, who had 22 digs and two aces. He is on a roll when it comes to digs, as he's now had ten or more in each of the last 32 games he's played dating back to last season.
Masuk's win bumped their record up to 12-4. As for Kolbe-Cathedral, their victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 8-9.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's game: Masuk has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 6.7 aces per game. However, it's not like Kolbe-Cathedral struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9.2 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Everything went Masuk's way against Kolbe-Cathedral in their previous meeting two weeks ago, as Masuk made off with a 3-0 win. Will the Panthers repeat their success, or do the Cougars have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
