Crusaders back in D-II final<\/p>\n
The revenge tour for the Prout boys tennis team has reached the final stage. The No. 2-seeded Crusaders beat No. 3 East Providence 4-1 in the Division II semifinal on Tuesday to reach Slater Park.<\/p>\n
The Townies put together a strong regular season that included a 10-game winning streak, but the Crusaders had the upper hand on their home courts. It\u2019s the first time in program history that the Crusaders will go to a division final in back-to-back years.<\/p>\n
Brady Kopka and Wilson Babij got the party started on Tuesday with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Alex Green and Finnegan McShane in No. 1 doubles. Jack Paiva and Alex Demos won 7-6, 6-3 over Alex Cassamas and Joseph Carrilo Norero in No. 2 doubles. Nico Testa won No. 1 singles 6-4, 6-4 over Jeremiah Smith. Luke Cavanagh clinched the victory with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Malachi Smith in No. 2 singles. Will Budnick picked up EP\u2019s only point in No. 4 singles with a 7-6, 7-5 win over Liam O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n
The victory came after Prout swept No. 7 Cranston East in the quarterfinal on Friday.<\/p>\n
Prout will look for its first boys tennis division championship since 2018. The school will also aim to accomplish the feat of having both tennis programs win a D-II title, as the girls team won the championship this past fall.<\/p>\n
The final is set for Saturday at Slater Park at a time to be determined, but it won\u2019t come in the form of a rematch against their rivals who beat them in last year\u2019s championship. Top-seeded Narragansett lost on Tuesday to No. 4 North Smithfield, which will face Prout for the title. The Northmen are two-time D-III champions (2013 and 2024) but have never won the D-II title. The Crusaders beat them 4-3 on April 24.<\/p>\n
Defending champion Mariners eliminated in semis<\/p>\n
Narragansett\u2019s quest to defend its boys tennis championship ended in abrupt fashion. Despite being Division II\u2019s top seed, the Mariners lost 4-3 to No. 4 North Smithfield at Sprague Park in Tuesday\u2019s semifinal match.<\/p>\n
The Mariners swept the doubles matches, but the Northmen swept the singles. The title-berth came down to No. 1 singles where North Smithfield\u2019s Nate Tremblay beat Ethan Smith 6-7, 7-5, 6-1.<\/p>\n
Narragansett\u2019s points came from Myles Harding and Rocco Lombardi who beat Chase Nelsen and Ben Wallbillich 7-6, 4-6, 6-1 in No. 1 doubles; Evan Boze and Aaron Perrone who won 6-0, 6-2 over Carter Hawes and Cody Roy in No. 2 doubles; and Will Hunter and Dylan Nollsch who claimed No. 3 doubles 6-2, 6-2 over Alex Sevegny and Ben Cuddy. The Northmen\u2019s other three points came from Tim Ferri who beat Will Harris 6-2, 6-4 in No. 2 singles; Oliver Drolet who beat Sydney Matson 6-2, 6-0 in No. 3 singles; and from Bryce Santos who beat A.J. Coutu 6-1, 6-3 in No. 4 singles.<\/p>\n
The Mariners previously swept the No. 8 Saint Rays\/Ponaganset co-op in the quarterfinal last Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Narragansett will lose four players to graduation, including two who started on the 2025 championship team. Smith and Perrone will be joined on stage by Nollsch and Luke Lamson. Matson could also depart in favor of the girls team, as she only played with the boys this spring due to an injury that kept her out this past fall.<\/p>\n
Rebels swept in quarterfinal<\/p>\n
The South Kingstown boys tennis team\u2019s season started with a five-game winning streak, and it ended in a five-game losing streak.<\/p>\n
All five losses were against top teams, but it\u2019s no consolation prize. No. 4 Bishop Hendricken eliminated No. 5 South Kingstown with a 4-0 result in Tuesday\u2019s Division I quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
Regardless of how it ended, it\u2019s the program\u2019s best year in a while. The Rebels went 8-7 in the regular season and placed themselves in the conversation of the best teams, but the Hawks beat them on May 13 in the regular season and did it again on Tuesday in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Hendricken, playing on its home courts, won the first three singles matches and the top doubles match. Luca Testa beat Jonah Plonsky 6-2, 6-4 in No. 1 singles; Lorenzo Giacobbe beat Jayce Plonsky 6-1, 7-5 in No. 2 and Kevin Hayes beat Prosper Lin 6-2, 6-3 in No. 3. Shane Ciunci and Alex Roberts beat Jeff Hill and Ian Grden 6-4, 6-4 in No. 1 doubles.<\/p>\n
Hill, Grden, Lin and Ronan Ray make up a small but impactful senior class of players who were staples in SK\u2019s ladder over the years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crusaders back in D-II final The revenge tour for the Prout boys tennis team has reached the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-699274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}