Newtown High School’s girls’ volleyball team heads into the South-West Conference playoffs riding high, having won eight straight matchups with SWC opponents, and the Nighthawks will look to carry that success over into the conference tournament, set to begin on Monday, October 27.

The Nighthawks finished 11-2 in SWC play and carried a 13-4 overall mark into the season finale, a nonconference clash with visiting East Lyme, set for 5:30 pm on Friday, October 24.

Among the bigger wins during Newtown’s streak was a hard-fought victory over visiting Joel Barlow of Redding on October 17. Newtown overcame a 2-1 deficit to prevail 3-2 (25-19, 25-27, 21-25, 25-17, 15-10).

Barlow had beaten Newtown 3-2 earlier this fall, as well as each time the teams met going back to the 2011 season.

“We haven’t beaten them in three years so it’s nice to finally get a win against them,” said senior Tonya Tucker.

“That gives us a huge confidence boost,” adds fellow senior Clara Whaley.

Barlow and Newtown both stood at 10-2 in conference play after the match. Newtown’s other really big win this fall was a four-setter over Weston, which also carried a 10-2 mark into the final week’s action. Only Masuk of Monroe (12-1) has a better record.

The win over Barlow was aided by strong fan support, captain Kyle Dandrea believes.

“We had a lot of fans. I think that hyped us up a little more,” she said.

 Newtown prevailed over Barlow behind Dandrea’s 18 kills, 17 digs, and six service aces; Jamie Calandro’s seven kills, seven aces, and six digs; and Molly McCoy’s 27 assists, seven aces, and five digs.

The Nighthawks blanked Immaculate 3-0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-11) on October 15. Kyle Dandrea had seven kills and four digs; Alexa Reilly had four kills; and Sarah Bender had 17 assists and five aces.

In the team’s final SWC clash of the campaign, Newtown defeated visiting Notre Dame-Fairfield 3-1 (25-12, 22-25, 25-19, 25-8) on October 21. Dandrea had 14 kills, five aces, and six digs; and Clara Whaley added seven aces and five kills.

A key to the team’s winning ways following a bit of an up and down start to the season is hard work in practice, Dandrea says.

“We really stepped up our game in practice and starting working a lot harder. We know the season is coming to an end and none of us want it to end,” Dandrea notes.

Just how fast the SWC tourney comes to a close will hinge on how well the Nighthawks can stand up to some of the conference’s best, and they’ve already proven to be able to defeat most of the upper echelon foes, falling only to Masuk and a Brookfield team that won nine of its first dozen SWC matches.

“We know we can beat the teams — we have the talent,” Dandrea said.

Regardless of the SWC tourney results, Newtown’s season will continue in the state playoffs, set to begin in early November.