Boys’ Tennis Faces Tough Matches—

Nighthawks, Perfect In Conference Play

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s boys’ tennis team has been dominant in recent weeks, cruising to seven straight wins, including four straight by 7-0 scores heading into Wednesday’s scheduled match with Brookfield (after The Bee sports section went to press).

The Nighthawks have blanked Stratford, Immaculate of Danbury, Bunnell of Stratford, and Bethel in succession to improve to 7-1 overall and 7-0 in South-West Conference play.

Defending champions of the SWC, the Nighthawks lost their season opener, 5-2, to Weston — a rematch of last year’s pinnacle clash — in a date that didn’t count in the conference standings. This coming Monday, May 9, the Nighthawks will get another shot at Weston in their SWC meeting, and Newtown Coach Marty Margulies believes his team has a chance to reverse some of the scores this time around. Margulies notes that both teams have since reshuffled their lineup ladders.

Rob Beier has been a constant in the No. 1 singles spot. Tyler Ruefenacht started the season in the fourth position and has played his way into the No. 2 singles slot. Connor Howell, initially a singles player, has teamed up with Sean Elliott to create a formidable top doubles team. The coach has used a consistent lineup of singles players and top two doubles teams, and rotated various team members in and out of the No. 3 doubles position to enable everyone to get some match experience.

“I’ve had high expectations of all of them and all of them have fulfilled those expectations,” Margulies said.

Newtown has proven to be one of the better teams in the SWC again this year, but the coach is cautiously optimistic about what the near future holds.

“I don’t expect miracles this year but, then again, I didn’t expect one last year either. You never know,” Margulies said. “We’re about as strong as we were last year. Weston is somewhat stronger, somewhat deeper, than it was.”

Newtown, since the opener with Weston, has yet to get seriously tested as a team. The Nighthawks have yet to face Joel Barlow of Redding and Masuk of Monroe, two of the tougher conference rivals. The Hawks also stand to have a good out-of-conference challenge from Fairfield Warde out of the FCIAC.

Individually, the Hawks have experienced some pressure and past the tests as No. 3 singles player Cam McCleary, No. 4 singles player Ricky Fuentes, and Ruefenacht have all battled to hard-fought wins.

Results of Newtown’s May 2 win over Bethel are as follows: Singles: 1. Rob Beier defeated Eric Bott, 6-1, 6-0; 2. Tyler Ruefenacht defeated Nate Appelson, 6-0, 6-1; 3. Cam McCleary defeated Brian Bergen, 6-2, 6-0; 4. Ricky Fuentes defeated Gui Martins 6-1, 6-1. Doubles: 1. Connor Howell/Sean Elliott, defeated A.J. Barnes/Sam Brodax, 6-0, 6-1; 2. Adam Oelberg/Yossi Kohrman-Glaser defeated V. Bhagwani/R. Baron, 6-0, 6-3; 3. Charlie Poarch/Jordan Trager defeated D. Huang/D. Tuccinone, 6-1, 6-0.

In the April 29 blanking of Bunnell, Adam Oelberg and Mason West earned a two-set win at No. 2 doubles, and the third doubles team of Eric Sippin and Karan Marwah also came out on top in two sets.