Newtown High School Boys’ Tennis Team Caps Off Strong Regular Campaign

By Andy Hutchison

The Newtown High School boys’ tennis team concluded a 12-2 overall regular season with a rewarding 4-3 win over Pomperaug at Treadwell Park on Monday. The match was a preview of Thursday’s scheduled South-West Conference Team Tournament quarterfinal round clash (after The Bee went to press).

On paper, Pomperaug was a mild favorite as the tourney’s No. 2 seed, but the third-seeded Nighthawks had reason to be confident about their chances given the overall picture.

Newtown avenged an early-season loss to Pomperaug during which they were without No. 2 singles player Evan Batzer. This most recent battle was a nonconference match whereas the first meeting counted in the SWC standings, giving Pomperaug a slightly better SWC mark. Newtown finished 10-2 in conference play and Pomperaug was 11-1.

Although Batzer dropped a tough 7-6 (3), 6-2 match against Ken Westerman on Monday, his presence in the lineup enabled his teammates to play in their usual positions rather than bump up to tougher spots. No. 4 singles player Peter Manos won a hard-fought match against Shryan Appalaraju 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4 and all three NHS doubles teams came out on top.

The No. 1 duo of Casey Tenney and Joe Cappiello capped off an 12-1 campaign with a two-set victory, 6-2, 6-4 over Andrew Gravecz and Scott Siegler.

“It’s of benefit to see how one another plays,” Tenney said of facing his likely tourney opponents only a few days before the start of postseason.

Cappiello and Tenney have played together at the Trumbull Raquet Club for a couple of years and they believe their off-season work together has led to their winning ways.

“It’s really paid off,” Cappiello said.

“We’re good friends off the court so that also helps,” Tenney added.

The No. 2 tandem of Colin Jacob and Connor Howell has had its share of success as well. The team won a battle of unbeatens in a 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 win over Shayyan Riahi and Stephen Randolph to improve to 8-0 together.

At No. 3, Rob Beier and Rich Andreotta won a two-setter in the season finale. Andreotta was also unbeaten in the matches he played this spring: two of them at fourth singles and the rest at third doubles.

No. 1 singles player Adam Wenick, playing against the best players in the conference on a regular basis, earned six wins this spring. Evan Batzer, at No. 2, won nine matches, Timo Roehrs, at No. 3, won eight and Manos came out on top ten times. Batzer has had a knack for battling back from apparent defeats to win, thus earning the nickname “Lazarus” from his coach, Marty Margulies.

“That takes an extraordinary measure of mental toughness to be able to stay calm and stay in the game regardless of score,” said Margulies, adding that all of his players possess this quality.

Clayton Makuch, Tommy Stewart, Eric Sippin, Tyler Reszoly and Adam Buccino have all won all of the matches in which they participated.

Newtown, following the SWC team tourney, will compete in the conference’s individual competition next week.