‘Hounds net win over Hawks

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Naugatuck’s PJ Morrissey returns a shot versus Woodland’s Nick Lucas Monday in Naugatuck. Naugatuck won the match, 6-3. –LUKE MARSHALL
Naugatuck’s PJ Morrissey returns a shot versus Woodland’s Nick Lucas Monday in Naugatuck. Naugatuck won the match, 6-3. –LUKE MARSHALL

NAUGATUCK — Teams are jockeying for position as the regular season winds down in boys tennis, and gaining entrance into the NVL tournament is on everyone’s agenda.

The Greyhounds picked up a big win over Woodland, 6-3, on Monday. Both teams are looking to secure a spot in the NVL tournament.

“We have five matches this week to close out the season,” said Woodland head coach Charlie Ostrander on Monday. “It doesn’t get much plainer than that. We should have enough wins to get into the league tournament but we still need two more wins to make states.

“To be where we are right now is certainly a huge turnaround after going 2-14 last year. No matter what happens this week we have already exceeded our expectations.”

The Greyhounds are closing in on their team goal of making the NVL and the state tournaments. Naugatuck secured the win over Woodland by picking up four victories in the six singles matches.

Marco Rebelo defeated James Nelson, 8-4. P.J. Morrissey got by Nick Lucas, 8-2. Jared Montini was victorious over Chris Pinevich, 8-3, and Matt Triscritti outlasted Nick Hudson in an 8-5 final.

The Hawks picked up singles wins with Mike Roulanaitis defeating Jonas Mauermann, 8-1, and Josh Powanda getting past Michael Rivera, 8-2. The doubles team of Roulanaitis-Powanda battled to an 8-6 win over Mauermann-Rivera.

Naugatuck closed out the match taking the last two doubles. The team of Rebelo-Montini earned an 8-4 win over Nelson-Lucas. Morrissey-Triscritti got past Hudson-Richie Weishner, 8-2.

“We are coming down the last stretch of the season,” said Naugatuck head coach Anthony Mariano on Monday. “I’m proud of what these kids achieved already this year but we have a few more goals to accomplish.

“We are playing for a spot in the NVL and the state tournament so this is an important week for us. I’m trying to keep the team focused and just play consistent. We had a lot of guys returning and the objective was to take it a step further than last season.”

Naugatuck took a big step in that direction earning a hard-fought 5-4 win over Sacred Heart My 5. The Hounds trailed 3-0 in the singles portion of the match only to storm back and tie it with Morrissey, Montini and Triscritti winning their matches rather handily.

Woodland’s Nick Lucas returns a shot versus Naugatuck’s PJ Morrissey Monday in Naugatuck. Naugatuck won the match, 6-3. –LUKE MARSHALL
Woodland’s Nick Lucas returns a shot versus Naugatuck’s PJ Morrissey Monday in Naugatuck. Naugatuck won the match, 6-3. –LUKE MARSHALL

It came down to the doubles and the tandems of Rebelo-Montini and Morrissey-Triscritti came out victorious leading Naugatuck past a very competitive Sacred Heart squad.

Woodland got caught up in a battle with Watertown May 5. The Hawks fell, 6-3, with Powanda, Weishner and Jordan Baer picking up wins in the singles matches.

Naugatuck dropped to 7-5 on the year after falling to Torrington, 8-1, on Tuesday. Rebelo picked up the win for Greyhounds in singles play.

The Greyhounds finish the regular season with Wilby on Wednesday and Watertown on Thursday.

Woodland fell, 9-0, to undefeated Wolcott on Tuesday to drop to 6-7 on the year.

Woodland will play Watertown on Wednesday and Torrington on Thursday. The Hawks will end the season at Torrington on Friday.

The NVL team tennis tournament starts next Monday and Tuesday with quarterfinal action. The top eight teams make the tourney.