Newtown Nighthawk Volleyball Team Battles In Playoffs

By Andy Hutchison

The Newtown High School girls’ volleyball team advanced in the quarterfinal round of the South-West

Conference Tournament as the second-seeded Nighthawks defeated the No. 7 New Fairfield Rebels 3-1 at home on November 2.

Newtown won the first game 25-15, dropped the second game 25-17, then won by 25-18 scores in each the third and fourth games to win the match and advance to Wednesday’s semifinals against No. 6 Joel Barlow of Redding (after The Bee sports section went to press).

Newtown, with a win, would play top-seeded Bunnell of Stratford or No. 4 Pomperaug of Southbury in the SWC championship (Saturday, November 7, in Oxford at 7 pm).

In the win over New Fairfield, Jess Lynch compiled 35 assists and had 7 service aces, Abbey Doski had 17 digs and 6 service aces and Emma Herring had 11 service aces.

Newtown, which had beaten New Fairfield 3-0 in the regular season, ended the campaign with nine straight wins, capped by a 3-1 win over Joel Barlow on October 30. The Nighthawks went 14-3 in the regular season. They lost their first meetings of the year to both Bunnell and Barlow, but bounced back to win in rematches. The Nighthawks nipped Pomperaug 3-2 on the road on October 16. The Nighthawks reached last year’s conference final and were upset by Bethel.