Newtown High School’s boys’ volleyball team fell 3-0 (25-10, 25-11, 25-16) to visiting Trumbull on April 5 and dropped a 3-1 (22-25, 25-14, 25-14, 25-9) decision to visiting Masuk of Monroe on April 10.

The Nighthawks were led by sophomore right-side hitter Nate Twitchell (eight kills and one solo block), senior outside hitter Ben Davis (one kill, seven digs, one ace, and one solo block), and senior setter Braden Hazard (11 assists, one ace, and one dig).

Newtown struggled early against Trumbull, led by senior middle hitter Brennan Cutter who dominated the net with 16 kills. After finding themselves down 11-0 in the third set, the Nighthawks stormed back to make it interesting led by the block from Twitchell before the Eagles closed things out.

In the match with South-West Conference foe Masuk, Newtown had 14 total blocks with Twitchell logging four solo blocks and junior middle hitter Charlie Hanson picking up three solo blocks and one block assist. Davis added an ace and six digs.

Newtown started strong out of the gate, capitalizing on Panther errors to win their first set of the season. Masuk stormed back and did not look back taking sets two and three. The Panthers were led by senior outside hitter Nathan McCauley and sophomore setter Nathan Kurkoski.

After a quick sideout, Kurkoski’s strong serving led the Panthers to a fourth set score of 17-0. The Nighthawks tried to make it interesting but were unable to overcome the deficit.

Newtown fell to 0-3 (0-1 in the SWC) while Masuk improved to 4-1 (1-0 SWC). The two teams were scheduled to have a rematch at Masuk on Wednesday, April 12. The Nighthawks are to host Pomperaug of Southbury on Friday, April 14 and entertain Joel Barlow of Redding on Monday, April 17 — both at 5:30 pm.