Newtown High School's girls' volleyball team played perhaps its best match of the year and also picked up one of its more noteworthy triumphs in its early October action. The Nighthawks used a solid performance to defeat tough South-West Conference rival Weston in the minimum three games on October 5, and battled past FCIAC foe Darien in five games on October 10.

In the middle of those two victories was a 3-1 loss to Pomperaug of Southbury, but the Nighthawks have won eight of their last nine matches following an 0-3 start to carry an 8-4 overall mark into a Friday, October 14 match with visiting Bunnell of Stratford, which is scheduled to begin at 5:30 pm.

In a home match against Weston, now 8-5 overall, Newtown won 25-23, 25-13, and 25-18. Kaitlyn Schneider had seven aces and ten digs; Molly McCoy had three aces, four kills, and 29 assists; and Zoe Beals had four aces, nine kills, and ten digs.

"We played fantastic in that game. It's one of the best efforts of our season, if not the best effort of our season," said Newtown Coach Tom Czaplinski, adding that all components of his squad's game were on, especially serving and passing. "Pretty much every first touch we made was great."

Newtown went on the road to take on Pomperaug (now 7-3) two days later and, after winning the first game, fell 3-1 (18-25, 25-17, 25-20, and 25-23). McCoy racked up 43 assists and eight digs, and Tess Mubarek had 14 kills.

Against Darien, visiting Newtown prevailed 3-2 (25-20, 25-23, 16-25, 23-25, 15-13) to drop the Blue Wave to 5-5 overall.

Darien is a perennial state powerhouse, piling up more than a dozen championships in the past two decades, and this marked the first time Czaplinski has beaten the FCIAC team in his 18-year coaching career at Newtown High. Czaplinski estimates that his teams have faced Darien's lineups about ten times during his career.

"Anytime you can beat a team with that much history it's a great win, especially on their home court," Czaplinski said.

McCoy had a trio of aces, 40 assists, and 14 digs; Tessa Leon-Gambetta had 17 digs; Schneider compiled six aces and 25 digs; Beals registered 20 kills and 32 digs; Erin Burns had five kills and three blocks; and Erin Mitchell added six kills.

The Nighthawks are scheduled to play a second home match in as many days as nonconference team Woodstock Academy, riding a five-match winning streak heading into an October 13 visit to Bacon Academy, visits on Saturday, October 15, beginning at 2 pm.