Update: The Nighthawks defeated Barlow 3-2 and earned the No. 2 seed in the SWC tourney. NHS will host Masuk on Monday, November 1 at 6 pm.

Injuries and illnesses have thrown a monkey wrench into the Newtown High School girls’ volleyball team’s rotation this fall. But, since overcoming a bit of a rough start, the Nighthawks have been cruising, pushing their winning streak into double digits with a win over visiting Woodstock Academy 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-13) on October 22.

Newtown has beaten all but one South-West Conference opponent — Weston — and headed into the season finale at Joel Barlow of Redding on Wednesday looking to earn the No. 2 seed in the upcoming conference playoffs. The Nighthawks went into the Barlow match having won 11 straight and posting a 13-5 overall record.

“We’ve definitely made strides. It’s been a bit of a chaotic year with a bunch of injuries,” Newtown Coach Tom Czaplinski said.

The Nighthawks had four consecutive challenging nonconference matchups to begin the season and lost all of them but have been red hot despite being without starters for multiple matches. Grace Miller was out for several matches and has returned, although not back to a full-time role, and others have missed less but notable time.

“Taking all that into consideration they are definitely improving,” Czaplinski said. “We’re starting to get healthy again.”

Newtown beat visiting Brookfield 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-15) on October 21 and then made it ten victorious matches in the minimum three sets this fall with the blanking of Woodstock Academy followed by a victory over Stratford on October 25.

Against Brookfield, Keyera Smith had 13 kills and 15 digs; Lauren Young had 13 assists and four kills; Zosia Teraszkiewicz logged eight digs and five kills; Miller had five kills, 15 assists, and two digs; Chloe O’Connell had five digs and three assists; Shannon Muckell recorded six digs; Bella Rio had six assists; Amaro Beard-Galati had six kills; and Delia Clouden registered four blocks.

In the win over Woodstock Academy, Smith had six aces to go along with four kills and nine digs; Muckell had seven digs; Teraszkiewicz compiled six kills, three digs, and a trio of aces; Clouden had three aces and five kills; and Beard-Galati had four kills.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.