Newtown High Spikers Shocked In SWC Title Game — Again

By Andy Hutchison

WESTON — It wasn’t supposed to be like this for the Newtown High School girls’ volleyball team. The favored Nighthawks had lost in the South-West Conference Championship in 2007 and they wouldn’t be denied again.

But Bethel had other things in mind.

Newtown showed plenty of heart in a determined comeback effort in which they climbed out of a two-games-to-none hole to force a decisive fifth game. But the Nighthawks ultimately could not overcome a sluggish start and ran out of steam in a tough-to-swallow 3-2 (22-25, 20-25, 28-18, 28-18, 14-16) loss to the Bobcats at Weston High on Saturday night.

Newtown, the tourney’s top seed, beat all of its SWC opponents in the regular season (as it did last fall) only to lose in the conference tourney’s last game. The Hawks avenged last year’s championship game defeat to Joel Barlow with a win over the Falcons in this year’s semifinals, but were shocked by No. 3 Bethel.

“This is so heartbreaking. Two years in a row, to work your butts off and not have it happen,” Newtown junior Megan Casey said.

Casey dove all over the floor to keep balls in play — and had some bruises to prove it — but it wasn’t enough. The Hawks seemed to hit balls long, or into the net; there were some moments of miscommunication and then before they knew it, Bethel had them on the ropes.

“I think their emotions got to them a little bit in the beginning,” NHS Coach Tom Czaplinski said. “They knew it was the SWC Championship game and they let the atmosphere get to them.”

Both teams had plenty of fan support, but Newtown’s was mostly parent-based and Bethel’s student-heavy audience was very loud.

“The Bethel crowd took us out of our game,” Czaplinski said. “They were very nervous. Between the crowd and their emotions they couldn’t hear each other.”

The players, however, did not blame the fans for their problems on the court.

“We just made too many mistakes in a row,” senior captain Jordyn Good said.

Ashley Rothacker had 28 assists and Good added 12 digs and eight aces to lead Newtown. The Hawks built a 6-0 lead in the third game and seemed to take over all of the momentum. They had new life after deadlocking the match at two wins apiece but Bethel, which got 13 digs and 11 kills from Taylor Edelmann, overcame a 14-13 deficit in the final game.

“We have a strong team. We can rebound from a lot of things,” Good said. “We’re going to be a big, dominating force in states this year.”

“I think we can go far in states,” senior Marley Koschel added. “We all have a lot of heart and we really want it.”

The Hawks earned the Class LL State Tournament’s No. 2 seed and a first round bye and were scheduled to begin tourney play Thursday (after The Bee went to press). Newtown had a bye in the first round last year and lost its first tourney game. The Hawks will try to turn around their tournament misfortunes and make it to the state’s pinnacle game on November 15.

“I think we can do it,” Casey said.