Newtown High School’s boys’ volleyball team extended its streak of three-set victories to five by defeating Oxford on April 28 and Pomperaug of Southbury the next night, both at home.

The Nighthawks defeated Oxford by scores of 25-19, 25-22, and 25-23. Matt Mattera had five aces, six kills, six digs, three blocks, and 27 assists. Thad Teraszkiewicz had two aces, 18 kills, and nine digs. Lewis Tomaj recorded four kills and seven blocks. Nico Diaz registered 11 kills and four digs.

In game two, Oxford built a 20-17 lead but Newtown ran off six straight points for a 23-20 advantage. Kills by Diaz and strong serves by Mattera sparked the 6-0 scoring advantage. The teams traded points and Teraszkiewicz had two late-set kills, including a cross-court hit into the back corner, to put Newtown up 2-0.

In the third set, Oxford jumped out to a 4-1 lead and the Hawks hung around but trailed throughout most of the set. Down 20-16, NHS got five consecutive points to grab a 21-20 lead. Ben Davis and Mattera had kills, and Teraszkiewicz had an ace to help lead the comeback, and Warner Bacon’s kill made it 21-20. Late in the match-ending set, Mattera had a key hits and a block for points, including a tip between rows, and capped the match with an ace.

Newtown Coach Sandy Doski said her team was not on its game against Oxford and was fortunate to come out with the win.

“They put up a good fight and we weren’t ready for that,” Doski said.

On the whole, this Nighthawk squad has been making strides.

“I feel we’ve been improving slowly and steadily throughout all the matches,” said Doski, specifying that she has seen improved serving and better passing, which has led to the setter being able to do his job well, leading to good hits.

“It’s a work in progress each day and each game. I can see steady improvement in all the players,” Doski said. “They’re still working hard for me which is what I need them to do.”

The Hawks bested Pomperaug 25-12, 25-17, and 25-20. Mattera had three aces, seven kills, ten digs, two blocks, and 16 assists. Teraszkiewicz tallied four aces, 14 kills, eight digs, and one assist. Braden Hazard had two aces, one dig, and six assists.

Newtown’s winning ways came to an end with a 3-1 (25-13, 18-25, 29-27, 25-20) loss at Xavier of Middletown on May 2. Mattera had three aces, one kill, eight digs, four blocks, and 30 assists. Teraszkiewicz had an ace, 30 kills, eight digs, and one block. Collin Granville logged four kills and five digs.

Doski said Newtown’s defense let the team down.

“Xavier played a faster pace game which caught us off guard the first game. We came back the second game once we picked up our pace. The third set had unforced errors at the wrong time and we came up short and in the fourth set — the same thing. We were never able to get a lead and build from that. We were always playing catchup and that is hard to do in volleyball as it is such a momentum game,” Newtown’s coach said.

The Nighthawks carried an 8-4 overall record into home matches against Joel Barlow of Redding on Wednesday and Amity of Woodbridge on Thursday (read about those matches and a home tilt with Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport on Monday, May 9, at 4:30 pm in the May 13 print edition of The Bee.

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