PAWTUCKET — A man leaving the back courts at Slater Park stopped to watch some points from the first set of the RIIL girls’ singles state championships on Sunday. He gestured to the girls who were with him to come watch some of the game.
His eyes widened as South Kingstown’s Alexa Clark ripped her servescrushed forehands and soft volleys. After his backhand winner closed out the fourth game, he said something in Spanish to the girls accompanying him before the three walked away.
Excellence needs no translation, and at this point, Clark’s game is beyond words anyway. The South Kingstown junior entered the season as the clear favorite to repeat as state champion, handled the pressure and continued to improve her game. Sunday’s final was a display of greatness and the Clark’s 6-1, 6-1 victory over La Salle’s Bianca Presciutti made her the first back-to-back champion in South Kingstown history and the first in Rhode Island since 2015.
“I feel like there was a little more pressure this year to defend my title rather than win it the first time,” Clark said after the 48-minute match. “I feel good. I feel accomplished and I feel like I worked hard for this.
While Clark was making history on Court 1, La Salle’s Moira Haxton and Alessandro Roye were roaming the same two courts. The Rams’ No. 2 doubles team was excited to reach Sunday’s final, but they exceeded their wildest dreams. The two handled the pressure well and earned a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Barrington’s Addison Friedman and Jasmine Malik to become what is believed to be the first No. 2 team to win the RIIL doubles championship.
“Someone said historic,” Roye said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, is this what we do?’ »
“Anything can happen and if you work hard you can make it happen,” Haxton said. “We never really expected it.”
Clark’s title was.
Her junior season began with a slight speed bump in a 6-4, 7-6 (2) victory over East Greenwich’s Ellie Coker-Doman. Since that match, Clark has only lost 26 matches, including nine she lost in her five matches won in the state singles tournament.
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Despite the results, Clark is confirmed to still be human. She feels nervousness every match, but as soon as she starts warming up with an opponent, it disappears and Clark’s worry – if you can call it that – is on her side of the net.
“I just feel like it’s more mental,” Clark said. “Of course I go out here and play, but I kind of struggle with my mind. I know I can do it physically, but it’s more mental.
At the start of Sunday’s match, she struggled with the first serves. She missed six of her first seven serves and, although she won the match, she also made a mental note to make an adjustment.
In fact, any error results in immediate correction. She strives for perfection, something she knows is unattainable, but the pursuit is only half the fun.
“Why should I hold myself to low standards? » said Clark. “I have high standards for myself and I feel like that makes me play better and focus more.”
“Scrappy” Presciutti gave him everything
Presciutti threw everything she had at Clark. A self-described “scrambly” player, Presciutti ripped low, flat backhands, big, high moonballs and even threw a sneaky serve that landed for an ace and drew a smile from Clark.
“The mindset is that you are going to play the best tennis you can today,” Presciutti said. “There is nothing against you. She’s a great player, so you just have to go out and play your best and whatever happens, it will happen.
Clark had answers to everything Presciutti proposed. She lost the first point of the match, then won the game. In his first service game, Clark fell 0-40 before winning it with a two-point forehand winner.
There wasn’t one shot better than another. It was sustained greatness for 48 minutes and on match point, Clark kept Presciutti off balance with a big first serve, then clinched the title by ripping a forehand into the backhand corner that went uncontested.
Clark didn’t shout, or raise his arms in joy, or do anything resembling celebration. Her standards, as she said, are different.
“It kind of shows me how hard I worked, pretty hard to get this point,” Clark said. “I won last year, I won this year and it makes me feel like I accomplished something, like I worked for something.”
As she left Slater defeated, Presciutti had a similar feeling.
The senior was an All-Stater as a sophomore, but injured her shoulder playing her other sport — she’s a javelin thrower — and the surgery cost Presciutti her junior season. She fought her way to Slater Park on Sunday, fought through the match and came away knowing she had achieved something huge.
“I remember doing PT and everything and I was telling my mom if I could get back on the field I’d be happy and that’s what I did,” Presciutti said. “I’m just happy I was able to make it this far.”
The doubles team played without stress
Haxton and Roye came to Slater with that mindset. Championship doubles matches are usually reserved for two No. 1 teams, with a No. 2 team occasionally going there to play their teammates.
The semifinals created this type of opportunity with the top teams from Barrington and La Salle playing in the top half of the bracket and the No. 2 pairs of teams playing in the bottom half.
Haxton and Roye got the job done with a 6-3, 6-3 victory and turned to teammates Ava Paletta and Giuliana Santoro for advice on how to handle Friedman and Malik.
It was simple. Play your game. So that’s what they did.
The pressure of the situation was immense, but the La Salle duo played relatively stress-free. They treated the game like any other regular season battle, even though there was a lot more at stake.
Both teams held serve through the first five games, but Haxton and Roye broke through late in the first set, winning three of the last four to claim the 6-3 victory.
“After the first set, there was a bit of confidence. But your confidence can start to wane a little bit,” Roye said. “We both knew we could still get a win. We just had to dig deep to find out what worked and what didn’t.
The back-and-forth battle continued in the second set, but the Rams played like they belonged. The teams traded matches and were tied 5-5 before Haxton and Roye finished off the final two. On championship point, Haxton hit a crosscourt forehand to the backhand corner that wasn’t returned and when it landed, Roye turned and ran to her partner saying “we got it had”.
“It feels good,” Haxton said. “After all that, you’re nervous, but after you’re done, you feel so good.”
This article was originally published in the Providence Journal: SK’s Alexa Clark heads to another state singles title
