Newtown High School's girls' volleyball team heads into a Wednesday, November 1, semifinal-round clash with Stratford (7 pm at NHS) having plenty of reason to feel good about it chances to qualify for the Friday, November 3, South-West Conference championship match.

The second-seeded Nighthawks beat No. 7 Brookfield 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 26-24) in the quarterfinals, at home, on October 31, and walked off the court to prepare for a rematch with a third-seeded Stratford team they beat in four games during the regular season.

What's more, the Nighthawks were without senior captain and middle hitter Erin Burns for that first match with Stratford because of an injury, and fellow captain and outside hitter Zoe Beals had only a few matches under her belt following a return from an injury of her own. Burns returned to her first game action since the middle of the season, just in time to contribute to the team's playoff-opening win, and Beals seems to be in top form.

"I think the biggest thing is getting healthy, getting everybody on the same page," said Newtown Coach Tom Czaplinski, who got Burns onto the court for one and a half games of the team's four games against Brookfield.

Burns contributed a pair of blocks during her return.

Beals had 12 kills and seven digs, Sarah Dowling had six kills, Mollie Goudy and Tess Mubarek both had six digs, Jackie Moccio collected five digs, Kim Buttery had 28 assists and three aces, and Genevieve Murray added two blocks.

In addition to Newtown's having already beaten Stratford, and having key players/leaders back in the fold, something the Nighthawks have going for themselves in the postseason is a propensity to thrive under pressure. And pressure, after all, is what win-or-be-eliminated postseason is all about.

"We seem to put it all together when the points are needed. When the pressure's on we step up a little bit," Czaplinski said.

That was evidenced in the quarterfinal-round triumph.

In game two, after Brookfield clawed back from a two-point deficit and seized a 13-10 lead on a 5-0 run sparked by three straight service aces, the Hawks dug in defensively and answered with seven consecutive points.

During the game-changing run, Burns had a block and timely deflection to keep a rally alive, Beals contributed some key hits, Erin Mitchell had back-to-back aces, and Mubarek came up with some timely digs, including a diving save.

Brookfield got to within 17-15 but no closer, before making things very interesting again in game three.

It went back and forth, with the teams trading leads until the Bobcats went ahead by as many as three points twice.

On a diving save by a Brookfield player, the ball not only stayed off the floor on the Bobcats' side of the court, but went over the net and landed in open space for a point and a 21-18 lead for the visitors. That combination of skill and luck made it seem as if game three would belong to the Bobcats, but Newtown's fortunes changed from thereon.

Dowling's kill into the back corner initiated a 4-0 Nighthawk run for a 22-21 NHS edge. After a Brookfield point, Moccio's save kept the play alive to set up a Beals spike. Another Beals kill made it 24-22.

After Brookfield tied the score, a service error and hit into the net ended things.

Newtown or Stratford will take on the winner of top-seeded and five-time defending champion Joel Barlow of Redding and No. 4 Pomperaug of Southbury in the finals (site to be determined), starting at 7 pm on Friday, November 3.

The Nighthawks lost to Barlow in last year's pinnacle match. They split a pair of regular-season, five-game clashes with Barlow this fall, handing the Falcons one of only two losses; the other being to nonconference foe Danbury. Newtown defeated Pomperaug in four games during the regular slate.