NHS Boys’ And Girls’ Tennis Teams Achieve Goals

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s boys’ and girls’ tennis teams have had successful, goal-achieving seasons this spring. The boys qualified for the South-West Conference Tournament for the first time in six seasons and posted the second-best record the team has had in coach Marty Margulies’ eight-year tenure. The girls, meanwhile, reeled off five straight wins to cap off the regular season before advancing to SWC tourney play. Both squads had strong individual efforts in conference tourney action, which they hope will carry over into state tournament play this week.

The boys went 12-3 overall (9-3 in SWC matches) to earn the tourney’s No. 4 seed. The key to the Nighthawks’ success this campaign, Margulies said, is depth.

Many teams have standouts at the top spots in their lineups, but Newtown’s roster has balance throughout the roster, Margulies said.

 “What separates teams in the conference is not so much the top but the bottom,” the coach added.

The bottom of Newtown’s lineup, the coach, points out, is nearly as strong as the top and that means that Newtown is tough in all of the singles and doubles slots — not to mention the players had to battle it out for positioning and, thus, created strong practice preparation for matches.

“Any one of our players is capable of challenging any other,” Margulies said.

In singles play, No. 1 player Mario Roehrs was 4-8 against his SWC opponents. His record, among those of his teammates is a bit deceptive given that Roehrs had the daunting task of facing the best the conference had to offer day in and day out. At No. 2 singles, NHS posted a 7-5 SWC record, at No. 3 the Hawks went 9-3, and at No. 4 the team was 7-5. Evan Batzer, Adam Wenick, and Peter Manos, respectively, for the most part, held those three singles slots throughout this season.

The No. 2 doubles position went 10-1 in SWC play, and the No. 1 and 3 doubles tandems each posted impressive 9-3 conference records. Throughout the season, the doubles teams were generally comprised of Casey Tenney and Timo Roehrs at No. 1, Joe Cappiello and Colin Jacob at No. 2, and Connor Howell and Ben Cassidy at No. 3.

Cappiello and Jacob and the tandem of Howell and Cassidy reached the SWC’s individual tourney finals which, due to rain and the state of state tourney competition, will take place on Friday at Wolfe Park in Monroe. The No. 1 duo got to the SWC semifinals before falling.

The Newtown girls’ team went 10-5 overall and brought home the SWC Colonial Division Championship trophy. No. 2 singles player Katie Serock was runner-up in the SWC tourney and the No. 3 doubles team of Meghan Loose and Kristen Tanner also advanced all the way to the championship round before losing.

The Class L team state tourney began on Tuesday afternoon and the Nighthawks won their qualifying round match 4-3 over Conard to advance as the tourney’s No. 15 seed for a date with No. 2 Greenwich in the first round. GHS defeated Newtown 7-0 on Wednesday.

Against Conard, NHS trailed 3-2 at the match held in Greenwich when the rain fell and forced the players to move indoors to wrap up the competition. Serock and No. 3 singles player Caitlin O’Mahoney, along with the No. 1 doubles team of Maxx Zimmer and Charlotte Manos, and the No. 3 tandem of Loose and Tanner all won against Conard. O’Mahoney and the No. 3 doubles duo finished off the comeback effort with their wins under pressure, and under the roof after the match was moved indoors.

“It was exciting. They were really nervous because they knew they had to win,” head coach Maureen Maher said.

Serock and No. 1 singles player Christina Ciamarra, along with the top doubles tandem, will all compete in the individual state competition at Yale in New Haven on Saturday. Whatever the outcome of the girls, this season will be considered a success by Maher.

“The season’s been great,” the coach said.

It will be a bittersweet ending for the coach when the final matches are played. Maher, who started coaching four years ago, will miss the three seniors (Zimmer, Manos and Serock), whom she has known since they were freshmen.

“They’ve been a great group of girls,” Maher said.