NHS volleyball—

Hawks Edge Pomperaug, Keep Winning But Seek Improvement

By Andy Hutchison

SOUTHBURY — When the October 17 volleyball match between Newtown and host Pomperaug High School ended, the South-West Conference rivals both walked out of the gymnasium with 9-3 records. As anticipated, this was a close match. Newtown prevailed in a two-hour, five-game battle (19-25, 25-18, 25-14, 23-25, 17-15).

Down 15-14 in the decisive game, Newtown evened the score thanks to a diving play by Abbey Doski to keep the ball alive and set up Megan Casey’s game-tying spike. Newtown grabbed the lead with its serve, then won the clinching point when Emma Herring tapped the ball over the net and just out of reach of the Pomperaug defenders.

The back-and-forth match had momentum swings time and time again and the fans of both schools cheered with every point as both teams fought to keep the match going.

“It was very intense,” Herring, a sophomore, said of the match.

The Nighthawks, though they celebrated an exciting win, were more relieved than satisfied when this contest concluded.

“We’re starting to play well. We have moments of brilliance and moments of who knows what’s going on,” Casey, a senior captain, said. “We’re consistently inconsistent. I think we’ve got to calm down and play our game.”

Newtown’s game, when it is on, includes aggressive play and NHS Coach Tom Czaplinski thought his players got away from that in this match due to the height advantage of the Pomperaug players.

“They’re a fantastic team. They’re a huge team. I think the girls just got in their own heads a little bit just by seeing the height of the girls and they kind of changed the way they approach [the game offensively]. I think that took away from how we play our game.”

Newtown, though, caught fire enough times to pull out the win. A win is a win but Czaplinaski, always seeking improvement in his players, would not call this a good win.

The Nighthawks built two five-point leads in the fifth game only to see Pomperaug fight back to tie the score and put the Hawks on the brink of defeat.

“They had their chances — we had ours and I guess we didn’t fold under pressure like we’ve done in the past so it’s definitely an improvement,” the coach said.

Any improvement can go a long way, especially given that the team is sophomore heavy and can probably be expected to endure some growing pains.

Newtown got 17 kills and 9 digs from Casey, 10 kills from Carly Iwanicki, 8 kills and 6 service aces from Herring, 31 assists and 8 digs from Jess Lynch, 25 digs and 5 aces from Abbey Doski, 7 kills from Stefanie Clavette and 5 digs from Riley Wurtz.

Newtown improved to 10-3 with a win over 10-loss Notre Dame-Fairfield on October 19 and was slated to visit Brookfield Wednesday (after The Bee sports section went to press). The Nighthawks will host Oxford on Friday, October 23, at 6:30 pm.