After an ultra-challenging schedule to start the season, the Newtown High School boys’ volleyball team is in the win column. The Nighthawks overcame a hard-fought first-set loss and defeated visiting Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport 3-1 (25-27, 25-18, 25-23, 25-15) on April 20.

The Nighthawks were led by sophomore right side hitter Nathan Twitchell (12 kills, one block assist, and two aces), sophomore middle hitter Warner Bacon (ten kills, four total blocks, three aces, and one dig), and senior setter Braden Hazard (27 assists, four digs, and one ace).

The first set was back and forth with the Cougars pulling out in the end. After a slow start to the second set and with assistance from strong serving by Bacon, the Nighthawks separated enough to even the match. Twitchell’s ace made it 7-4, Bacon had a booming kill for an 11-6 lead, and an ace by Bacon and kill by A.J. Zatulskis helped NHS extend its lead to 16-6. Kolbe cut the deficit in half, but Zatulskis, Charlie Hanson, and Twitchell had key hits for points to help Newtown pull ahead by ten again. A diving save by Nico Diaz kept the ball alive and led to a Twitchell kill for a 21-12 lead. NHS went up 22-12 before Kolbe hung around with a 4-0 run. Bacon stopped Kolbe’s momentum with a kill and Twitchell’s service point brought things to 24-16. After a pair of Kolbe points extended things, an errant Kolbe hit ended the set and evened the match at 1-1.

Kolbe came out firing out of the break capturing a 5-0 lead to force a Newtown timeout. The Nighthawks settled down and won a tightly-contested set with assistance from a kill by Diaz. The third set was close the rest of the way. A block at the net by Bacon and kill by Diaz led to NHS coming out on top 25-23 to go up two games to one.

In the fourth set, Newtown found itself down two points a few times before Kolbe went up 11-8. Things were tied 13-13 when Nighthawks went on a 7-0 run fueled by Twitchell and Bacon kills to establish control. Twitchell had a kill that was too hot to handle for a 14-13 NHS edge. Zatulskis came through with an ace to cap the run. Twitchell answered Kolbe’s run-stopping point with a cross-court hit. NHS closed it out with a Hanson ace followed by a Kolbe hit out of bounds.

The win is the first for new Coach Dan Nyitrai, and a fairly inexperienced squad which had the unenviable task of facing the top teams in the South-West Conference as well as some challenging nonconference foes right out of the gate to the tune of an 0-6 start.

“It’s about time — we’ve been bringing it every practice,” Nyitrai said. “They’ve been working hard. They deserve it. ... They need to build on it. We got hit really hard early in the year. The boys really needed it.”

Nyitrai said blocking and hitting showed great improvement throughout the Kolbe match.

“There’s still a lot more work to do,” the coach said.

Newtown made it two wins in a row by defeating visiting Brookfield 3-1 (25-11, 25-13, 21-25, 25-18) on April 24.

The Nighthawks were led by senior outside hitter Diaz (ten kills, five aces, and four digs), junior outside hitter Hanson (11 kills, four digs, and three aces), senior libero Connor Adams (three digs and a 100 percent serve receive percentage), and junior setter Matt Tomaj (12 assists, one ace, and two digs).

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