MONROE — After an initial working out the kinks process in nonconference matches, and a pair of losses, Newtown High School’s mostly-inexperienced varsity boys’ volleyball team dug into South-West Conference play — with a win over Masuk.

Actually, a pair of them.

The Nighthawks, in an April 7 clash, withstood a strong comeback by host Masuk, which erased a four-point deficit with set four at match point. The Hawks prevailed 3-2 (23-25, 25-16, 25-21, 24-26, 15-12).

“This is really the start, this is the SWC — these are the ones we really need to come out strong on,” said Newtown Coach Sandy Doski, whose team had a quick turnaround with the Panthers in a rematch won by the host Nighthawks 3-1 just four days later.

“We’re so young,” said Doski, whose roster comprises mainly players with limited junior varsity experience due to a combination of last year’s graduation and the impact of the coronavirus, which wiped out the spring 2020 slate.

“They’re starting to play more as a team instead of six individuals out there,” Doski said after the first of the two triumphs. “They jelled better. We served a lot better today, our serve-receive still needs some help but they were diving on the floor saving balls.

“The energy level was up a lot more. They wanted to win so badly to not be 0 and whatever. This shows that we can compete,” Doski added.

Matt Mattera had three aces, four kills, seven digs, six blocks, and 39 assists. Will Connors had nine digs and a pair of assists. Thad Teraszkiewicz registered two aces, 32 kills, five digs, and two blocks. Jon Ingersoll had three kills and one block. Nico Diaz had recorded an ace to go along with ten kills and ten digs.

Mattera had two straight aces as Newtown built a 13-9 lead in game four. A cross-court kill by Liam O’Sullivan and kill by Teraszkiewicz answered a Masuk point and made it 17-10. That is when the Panthers began to chip away, eventually pulling to within 18-16, promoting a Nighthawk timeout.

Out of the break, Teraszkiewicz hit a booming kill for a point but Masuk got the next two. Another Teraszkiewicz kill made it 20-18. After NHS made it 21-18, the lead increased to four on a Mattera block. Masuk got the next two, then Diaz had consecutive kill for a 24-20 lead.

The Panthers reeled off the next six points to force the decisive fifth set.

Newtown jumped out to an early lead and held three-point advantages eight times in the final set. Masuk kept things close.

Lewis Tomaj came up with back-to-back points, one on a tip into open space and the other on a block to end a long rally, making it 7-4 Hawks.

After the Panthers tied things at 10 apiece, the Hawks went up to stay on an Ingersoll hit that went off the net and dropped over. Teraszkiewicz followed with a kill to make it 12-10. A block for a point by Tomaj and long Masuk hit out of bounds helped bring things to match point. Teraszkiewicz ended it with a kill.

The Hawks took care of business in one less set when these teams matched up at NHS winning 3-1 (25-21, 17-25, 25-19, 25-14). Doski said she would have preferred the head-to-head matches be spread out so as to give her more time to work on adjustments to Masuk’s game in practice. To make things even more challenging, NHS had to make some roster adjustments coming off the first win. Despite all of this, the Hawks rose to the occasion.

“With this being spring break week, we were missing a few people on the roster. We had to change our serve receive and offense to cover those positions we were missing. We had half an hour to run through it before we had to implement it on the court and the guys did an amazing job of executing it on the court. We played really well despite having several players in different positions than what they are used to playing,” Doski said. “We moved well, communicated well on the court, and limited the amount of errors, which transitioned into the win for us.”

Mattera had an ace, three kills, eight digs, one block, and 35 assists; Teraszkiewicz recorded an ace, 27 kills, and nine digs; Tomaj had a trio of kills and one block; and Diaz recorded nine kills and 11 digs.

Following consecutive road matches against Pomperaug of Southbury (a 3-0 win on April 13) and Joel Barlow of Redding (Monday, April 18 at 5:30 pm), the Hawks return home for a nonconference tilt with Norwich Free Academy, Wednesday, April 20 at 6 pm.

The Hawks then play two on the road with a Saturday, April 23 visit to Kolbe Cathedral at 1:30 pm followed by a Monday, April 25 visit to Brookfield at 4:15 pm. Brookfield volleyball is new to the conference this season. NHS closes out the month of April at home; Oxford visits Thursday, April 28 at 6 pm and there will be a rematch with Pomperaug the next day, at 4:30 pm.

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