NHS Girls’ Tennis Team Continues To Shuffle Lineup

By Andy Hutchison

Common practice early in the high school tennis season is for the coach to shuffle, reshuffle … and reshuffle the lineup some more in an effort to find the right pairings for doubles tandems and figure out which players are best suited for singles play. This procedure often unfolds a few matches into the regular season, generally after a wet, rainy preseason leaves limited time to experiment in advance of the regular season.

The start of this season has required even more altering of the lineup for the Newtown High School girls’ tennis team than expected. Injuries, last minute roster shakeups and school vacation have forced NHS Coach Maureen Maher to continue to tinker with who plays where — and when.

“It totally changes your lineup,” the coach said of her list of available players changing in the first week of the campaign.

“I have a lot of new players that don’t have experience playing in matches — they’re learning,” Maher added. “As the season goes on, they’ll continue to get stronger and stronger.”

This is not to say the Nighthawks do not still expect to have success. Maher said during preseason that she expected the team to do as well if not better than it did a year ago when the Nighthawks went 10-3 and placed third in the South-West Conference Tournament. “We’re a strong team,” the coach reiterated following a 5-2 setback to Pomperaug at home on Monday.

The Nighthawks, following a 6-1 win at Stratford on Tuesday (the lone defeat against Stratford was a result of a forfeit because of players being away), carry a 2-2 record into the April 20 clash with Joel Barlow. The Nighthawks opened the campaign with a 4-3 loss to tough Lauralton Hall on April 8, then blanked Notre Dame-Fairfield 7-0 the next day.

After falling to Pomperaug, the Nighthawks got back into the win column with the victory at Stratford on Tuesday. The season is still young and the expectations remain high.

“I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. We have a really great bunch of girls,” said junior Ashley Cech, a doubles player a year ago who — because of the many unexpected lineup changes — has been transformed into a singles player.

Cech has won in both doubles and singles play this spring and is enjoying the adjustment to playing alone.

“They’re very different,” said Cech, comparing doubles to singles. “But it’s a lot of fun playing singles, especially if you’re independently driven.”

The junior added that she is learning just how independently driven she is, but so far so good. Although she enjoyed working with a partner, “If you get down, you can pick yourself up easier,” she said of singles play.

While Cech gets used to her new role, several players are getting accustomed to playing varsity tennis, including junior Kristen Tassinari and sophomores Sara Benson, Kristen Carino, Ali Fuentes and Ayesha Dholakia.

In the win over Stratford, top singles player Christina Ciamarra, a junior, along with No. 2 singles player sophomore Caitlin O’Mahoney and No. 3 player Cech all won 6-0, 6-0. Junior Nicole Vournazos won 6-0, 6-1 at fourth singles. The top doubles team of sophomore Meghan Loose and Benson rolled 6-1, 6-0 and the No. 2 tandem of Dholakia and Carino won 6-2, 6-1.