Masuk High’s boys volleyball team improved to 12-4 this spring by earning a 3-1 victory at Newtown on Monday. The set scores were 25-18, 20-25, 25-22, 25-19.
After the teams split the first two sets Masuk took the pivotal third set and closed things out with another hard-fought win in the fourth. The victory was sparked by the return of senior captain Daniel Ferris who had been sidelined with an injury. Ferris, an outside hitter, had kills throughout the match.
Set three was extremely close from start to finish with neither team taking a lead of more than one or two points until the very end. Mathias Aoaeh broke the tie for a 23-22 lead and captain Michael Majersky followed with the next two kills to close things out.
In set four, Masuk used a 5-0 run to turn a 4-2 deficit into a three-point advantage. A diving save by captain Nathan Kurkoski led to one of Ferris’ kills as part of that scoring run.
After NHS tied it at 7-7, Ferris put the Panthers back in front and Jack Hanna followed with a service point. A nicely-placed hit by Kurkoski added to the lead and Masuk went up 11-7.
Masuk went up by as many as eight points and sealed the win with Aoaeh, Ferris and Majersky racking up kills. Owen Lafond, Tyler Barringer and Andrew Oleyar all contributed key plays in the win.
“They were up to the challenge,” Masuk Coach Dan Nyitrai said. “We fought and I’m really proud of them.”
The Panthers were coming off a 3-0 loss at Shelton on Friday, and before that a 3-0 win over New Milford on May 7. The Panthers won the New Milford match with scores of 25-14, 25-15, 25-12.
Majersky had 10 kills, Barringer seven kills and Aoaeh six kills. The team had eight aces with Nick Adams and Kurkoski each recording two. Oleyar had eight digs, Kurkoski seven and Aoaeh six digs. Kurkoski has 16 assists and Hanna added 11 assists.
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