By Steve Bigham

The Newtown High School boys’ tennis team was back at full strength this week after being decimated by spring break a week ago. And since a skeleton crew fell to Weston on April 18, Newtown has won two more matches to raise its record to 5-1.

Coach Martin Margulies is still kicking stones this week after a bad break in the scheduling may have cost his club a shot at the conference title. As was reported last week, Newtown was forced to play undefeated Weston without its team intact. In fact, aside from No. 1 singles player, Zack Miller, everyone else played out of position. Newtown, which lost, 7-0, even had to forfeit a doubles match due to a lack of bodies.

Weston was not on spring break last week.

“If we’d been at full strength it would have been a dogfight,” Margulies said.

Speaking of dogfights: Miller and Evan Gillespie locked up in a class three-set match that remained undecided until the final put away. Miller ended up losing, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8), but last week’s match could very well be a foreshadowing of the South-West Conference (SWC) title match in June.

Zack is known for having a strong and consistent baseline game and used his topspin to keep Gillespie off balance. In the end, however, Gillespie’s overpowering net game won out.

“Evan was an attacker and Zack was retrieving. If Zack’s net game was a strong as his back court game, he would have dominated the kid,” Margulies said.

Miller did have a match point at 8-7 in the third-set tiebreaker, but Gillespie battled back to win the final three points.

Newtown was still low in manpower on Friday, but so was Stratford, which was also on vacation. Stratford, lacking depth even during normal weeks, never had a chance.

Sean O’Mahoney moved up to first singles and won a very impressive match over Mike Madar, 2-6, 6-0, 6-3.

On Monday, Margulies welcomed his entire team back and the locals went out and promptly defeated Bethel, 6-1.

The Nighthawk netters were scheduled to travel to Jonathan Law in Milford on Wednesday of this week before coming home to host Masuk on Friday. They head to Immaculate in Danbury next Monday and host New Milford next Wednesday.

Newtown 6, Bethel 1: Singles – Zack Miller (N) def Kevin Dausch 6-0, 6-0; Jon Perachio (N) def Jesse Inthepannha, 6-1, 6-0; Sean O’Mahoney (N) def Marco Saric 6-1, 6-0; Matt Beres (N) def Adam Randall 6-0, 6-2. Doubles – Pete Stephenson/Matt McFadden (N) def Derek Brandt/Tom Kilcourse 6-2, 6-4; Steve Danyew/Jason Garbarino (N) def Steve DiBenedetto/Chris Rodriquez 6-3, 6-3; Josh Blum/Kevin Spaulding (B) def Mark Stephenson/Tom Hunt, 6-2, 6-4.

Newtown 7, Stratford 0: Singles – Sean O’Mahoney (N) def Mike Madar 2-6, 6-0, 6-3; Matt Beres (N) def Donnell Sceck 6-3, 6-1; Matt McFadden (N) def Monk Kyes 6-0, 6-0; Steve Danyew (N) won by default. Doubles – Jason Garbarino/Mark Stephenson (N) def Mike Mozzarella/Dick Carethre 6-0, 6-0; Mike Burns/Aaron Johnson (N) won by default; Tom Hunt/Patrick DeNicola (N) won by default.

Weston 7, Newtown 0: Singles – Evan Gillespie (W) def Zack Miller 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8); Alex Brandon (W) def Sean O’Mahoney 6-1, 6-1; Matt Silver (W) def Matt McFadden 7-6 (7-5), 6-;, Ryan Pierce (W) def Steve Danyew 6-1, 6-3. Doubles – Andrew Mayer/John Champagne (W) won by default; Jordan Rosen/David Buivid (W) def Jason Garbarino/Mark Stephenson 6-3, 6-1; Kevin Beardsley/Mike Sheg def Mike Burns/Aaron Johnson, 7-5, 7-5.