The Newtown High School girls' volleyball team forced a decisive fifth game by reeling off a dozen consecutive points in game four, but couldn't carry over the momentum in a 3-2 (24-26, 26-24, 25-15, 15-25, 15-11) loss to visiting St Joseph of Trumbull, on September 12.

St Joe's withstood an impressive showing by Newtown's Zoe Beals, who had 17 kills to go along with five digs and four aces.

"Zoe was on in every aspect of her game today," Newtown assistant coach Lisa Burbank said.

Tessa Leon-Gambetta had eight digs, Molly McCoy had five digs, and Rachel O'Grady added four digs. Sarah Dowling racked up ten kills, Erin Burns had nine kills, and Julia Anderson compiled eight kills.

In the fourth game, Newtown trailed 15-13 before reeling of those 12 unanswered points. Beals had a tap-over kill at the net for a 16-15 lead, and Burns and McCoy also had kills to help Newtown pull away. The Hawks got strong serving from Tess Mubarek, including an ace to bring the game to match point, and Burns ended it with a block that was deflected out of bounds on the St Joe's side of the net.

In game five, the teams traded points early on, then St Joe's seized control. Down 14-8, the Nighthawks stayed alive as Burns had a kill and Newtown's strong hitting led to a pair of errant St Joe's hits, making it 14-11. But another long scoring run wasn't in the cards for the Hawks.

Newtown was beaten in a close four-game match by visiting Darien in the season-opener, on September 9.

Darien prevailed 3-1 (27-29, 25-23, 25-20, 26-24) in match Tom Czaplinski, head coach of the Nighthawks, felt was a much better showing from his squad.

Dowling had ten kills and two aces, Burns had five kills and four blocks, McCoy added five aces and 35 assists to go along with a pair of blocks.

"They played their hearts out," Burbank said of the Nighthawks in the Darien match. "Their passing was better, serving was more consistent."

Despite the early setbacks, the Nighthawks do stand to gain something from the early-season matches

"It's always good to start the year against hard competition. The FCIAC always has good teams," Czaplinski said.

Newtown, coming off a 3-0 loss at Joel Barlow of Redding on September 14, will host Notre Dame-Fairfield on Friday, September 16, beginning at 5:30 pm.