There was a competition within the competition when the Newtown and Immaculate of Danbury girls’ volleyball teams hit the court in Newtown on October 14. Sisters Gabby and Grace Soltis opposed each other and had some fun with their sibling rivalry.

The Nighthawks went on to win their 11th consecutive match, 3-1 (25-11, 25-12, 21-25, 25-15).

“I look forward to playing against her every single time. It makes me more competitive,” said Grace, a senior at Immaculate who first started playing volleyball her freshman year.

“It’s easy to laugh at each other when we mess up,” said Gabby, a junior at Newtown High, who followed in her sister’s volleyball-playing footsteps and started as an eighth grader. “It’s definitely fun to cheer for each other.”

After winning the first two games, Newtown was fended off by Grace and her Immaculate teammates who forced the fourth game behind some strong serving and net play from Grace.

The Mustangs took their first lead of the third game at 19-18 and closed it out on a 5-1 run.

Newtown trailed 5-3 to start game four but scored five consecutive points to build a lead it would not relinquish. Consecutive aces by Ella Stubbs tied things and gave Newtown a 6-5 advantage. NHS took an 8-5 lead; the Mustangs got to within a couple points, but the Hawks answered with a 7-0 run. Amaro Beard-Galati had a block at the net that led to a point for a 10-6 lead and followed with a kill for a five-point advantage. Annabel Saunders and Grace Miller had key kills, and Zosia Teraszkiewicz’s solid hitting and service game helped Newtown build a double-digit lead. Miller had a well-placed serve that hit the top of the net and dropped over for a point down the stretch, and the Nighthawks pulled away.

Miller had three of Newtown’s 12 aces, and Stubbs, Soltis, and Haley Austermann each had two aces for the Hawks. Teraszkiewicz and Miller had 14 and 11 kills, respectively. Bell Rio had seven digs. Austermann logged 22 assists, and Soltis helped set up her teammates as well with 15 assists.

Newtown Coach Tom Czaplinski would like to see the Nighthawks become more consistent.

“It’s not whether we win or lose the game but how we play the game,” the coach said.

Newtown faced its toughest South-West Conference competition thus far, with an October 18 visit to Joel Barlow of Redding; NHS fell 3-0 to the unbeaten Falcons.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.