This article has been updated on November 3 to reflect the announced time and location for the championship match.

Newtown High School's girls' volleyball team overcame a game one loss and Pomperaug of Southbury forcing a decisive fifth game for a 3-2 (18-25, 25-22, 25-19, 23-25, 15-10) win in the South-West Conference tournament semifinals, at neutral site Masuk High in Monroe, on November 2.

With the win, the top-seeded Nighthawks will take on No. 2 Joel Barlow of Redding in the Friday, November 4 championship match at Weston High, beginning at 7 pm.

Fourth-seeded Pomperaug, which defeated the Nighthawks during the regular season, made things very interesting in the semifinal match. Newtown trailed 21-20 in game two but, with the help of some Pomperaug service errors and errant hits, evened the match with Erin Burns closing out game two with a nicely-placed tap over the net that the Panthers couldn't handle.

The Nighthawks seized a two games to one lead in a game three victory sparked by a 7-1 run. Down 12-11, the Nighthawks called timeout and, out of the break, the Nighthawks caught fire. Erin Mitchell's kill off the top of the net ended a long rally and a Molly McCoy kill, followed by another Mitchell kill extended the lead to 19-13. The teams went back and forth and Burns again ended things with a kill.

Pomperaug jumped out to a 9-3 lead in game four. The Nighthawks got to within two points with Zoe Beals capping a comeback effort with consecutive kills. The Nighthawks went down five points, but again fought back, and McCoy's ace gave the Hawks their first lead of the game, 19-18. The game remained close the rest of the way before the Panthers closed out the win.

In the fifth game, Burns set the tone with back-to-back kills to open the scoring and Kaitlyn Schneider's ace extended Newtown's lead to 4-0. The Nighthawks never looked back. McCoy had an ace, and Beals, Julia Anderson, and Burns all had kills the rest of the way. The Panthers twice pulled to within two points, but got no closer. McCoy's tap over the net for a point made it 13-10, Burns brought the game to match point with a kill, and McCoy's block at the net for a point ended it.

The Nighthawks compiled 19 aces, with Schneider racking up eight of them, and Beals and McCoy each logging four. Burns had ten kills and five blocks; Beals added 11 digs and 16 kills; McCoy registered 45 assists to go along with 13 digs; Schneider had 14 digs; Tess Mubarek had ten digs; Mitchell had eight kills; and Tessa Leon-Gambetta recorded six digs.