NHS Girls Lacrosse –

Four In A Row! – Hawks Win Yet Another SWC Title

By Andy Hutchison

REDDING – New players, new season … same result. And that’s just fine with the members of the Newtown High School girls’ lacrosse team. The Nighthawks doubled up Brookfield 20-10 to capture their fourth straight South-West Conference Tournament championship, Wednesday evening at Joel Barlow High.

Courtney Gleason tickled the twine to the tune of nine – count ’em nine – goals (that’s three hat-tricks!) and Betsy Vendel added six tallies to lift the top-seeded Hawks to a rout of the No. 2 seed. Players celebrated with hugs and screams of joy as winning just doesn’t get old no matter how repetitive it becomes.

“It’s very sweet. It’s completely different from last year – it’s a new team,” Gleason said.

The Nighthawks graduated a handful of starters from last year’s squad and head coach Maura Fletcher noted that a new freshman class of players, not to mention junior varsity call-ups, experiences this winning tradition each spring.

Brookfield went 11-1 in conference play, having lost only to these Nighthawks among SWC foes. Brookfield is 15-4 overall, including conference tourney play. Newtown was unbeaten in the conference, but outscored Brookfield just 16-12 in the regular season. The Hawks (now 17-2 overall), believe it or not, were a little bit nervous heading into the finale.

“It’s tough going into games like this with all of the pressure,” said Fletcher, adding that the team spent four days gearing up for Brookfield.

“You’re always nervous no matter what,” said NHS goaltender Lisa Isabella, who had nine saves. “I think everyone was on top of their game.

In addition to the Gleason-Vendel 15-goal combination outburst, net-finders came off the sticks of Lisa Vendel, along with Jackie Isabella, Kaitlin Brophy and Tina Sanchez – the latter three of whom each had one score.

Despite an overall strong team effort, Gleason’s career-high nine goals stood out and earned the forward tournament MVP honors. Gleason had been double- and, at times, triple-teamed in past games, but Brookfield chose not to gang up on Newtown’s top scoring weapon.

“They didn’t mark her tightly today and it worked in our favor,” Fletcher said.

Newtown still has some unfinished business in postseason play. The Hawks were upset by Barlow in the opening round of last year’s Division I State Tournament. Although the Hawks beat Barlow once in the regular season, and again in the SWC tourney semis, they still have a bad taste in their mouths from the early state tourney departure. The Hawks are seeded No. 4 in the state bracket and will tangle with No. 20 Mercy (9-8) at home at 11 am on Saturday in the first round. With a win, NHS would play the winner of No. 5 East Lyme (14-2) and No. 12 Brien McMahon (11-4) in Monday’s quarterfinal round. McMahon sports an impressive record and comes from the competitive FCIAC Conference. Newtown narrowly beat East Lyme, pulling out a dramatic 12-11 win on May 12 in a non-conference battle at home.

“We’re really thinking we can get to the quarterfinals and take it from there,” Fletcher said. “After losing in the first round last year I think they’re going to take care of business on Saturday.”

From there, assuming NHS advances past the quarters, the semifinal clash would like be an enticing one with top-seeded, undefeated Darien, which – by the way – is also the defending D-I champion, on Wednesday.

 “We know that the SWC isn’t the best conference in the state. We really want to go out and play the strong teams across the state and prove we’re as good as people say,” Gleason said.