EAST GREENWICH — La Salle girls tennis will add to its legacy again before the end of the month.
A 16th straight State Championship appearance is almost assured for the Rams. A 13th consecutive title-winning fall is just slightly less guaranteed. La Salle tied up a perfect regular season with an 7-0 victory over East Greenwich on Monday, Oct. 19.
Caroline Trask was first off the courts against the Avengers in under an hour. She’ll lead La Salle at No. 1 Singles again when it’s time to return to Slater Park for championship Saturday on Oct. 31.
Trask just fell in the singles final in Pawtucket to Amalia Oganesian in three sets. The loss stings, but keeping La Salle’s streak alive is a far more important prize. The sophomore wouldn’t even consider trading the team crown for an individual title.
“Honestly, win the team [championship] because it’s so great seeing everybody’s work come together,” Trask said. “We all just worked so hard together, so definitely the team one. Everyone just gets so happy and so hyped for it.”
La Salle stacked 10 sweeps this fall, losing just one point to Prout, the state’s second-ranked team, Barrington and South Kingstown. Three of the Rams’ singles players qualified for the individual tournament with Sloane Ferrara and Holly Speranza meeting in the Round of 16. The doubles bracket ended with a pair of La Salle tandems in the finals as Brinley Freitas and Allesandra Santoro toppled Ella Kozlik and Arianna Roye.
La Salle rivals North Kingstown girls volleyball as one of the most dominant programs of the fall season.
“I think we’re mostly just trying to focus and not trying to think too far ahead about what could happen in the future,” Speranza said. “That’s what we say at practice — just take it one match at a time, one point at a time.”
Speranza was off the court next, also in less than an hour, after winning at No. 3 singles. Ferrara, who won at third singles against Barrington in the state championship last year, wasn’t too far behind in the second singles spot.
La Salle’s practices might be tougher than some of its matches. They all make each other better and it comes full circle on game days. And any pressure of keeping the title streak alive is pushed aside – it’s all about supporting each other and becoming better every day.
“It’s really surreal, I feel like we are a family at this point, especially at the end of our season,” Trask said. “Our freshmen this year, Carina [Lamoriello] and Caroline [Britt], they both fit right in so well. And it’s just our second family out there.”
“Our coach [Tom Martin] always says that he would rather see us play well than to win sloppily,” Speranza said. “So, we’re more happy to play well [and lose] than win if it’s not a great match.”
No. 2 Prout (13-1) moved up to the state’s top league after going undefeated in Division II last year. It’s an impressive leap for the Crusaders as they try to spoil Halloween celebrations for the Rams. No. 3 Barrington and No. 4 North Kingstown are also chasing La Salle with quarterfinal matches starting on Thursday, Oct. 22.
“We’ll just keep it going,” Speranza said. “Keep on practicing how we have, it’s been working for us. I think everyone on the team has improved a lot, so I think we’ll keep going at it until the playoffs.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: La Salle girls tennis completes perfect season with title in sight