Can Chariho win a D-II girls tennis title? If history tells us anything, there's a chance

LINCOLN — While the South Kingstown girls tennis team has rolled through Division II competition, don’t hand the trophy to the Rebels quite yet. Only three No. 1 seeds have won the D-II title in the last 10 years, so to say anything could happen once the postseason arrives is an understatement.

Chariho understands this and wants in on any title conversation. On Tuesday afternoon, the Chargers headed north to take on a two-loss Lincoln team fighting to get in there as well. The long drive didn’t affect Chariho, which got a quick win from Faith Owren at No. 4 singles and two from its top two singles before Emily Ballard made things official with a straight-sets victory in what ended up being a 5-2 win over the Lions.

“We are pretty high in the ranks right now and we just had a loss against SK, so a win feels good right here,” Ballard said. “We were just trying to keep our heads up after the loss but I think we did good today.”

Chariho has done well all season and has quietly put itself into position to be a serious title contender this fall.

South Kingstown is off to an impressive 8-0 start after its sweep of Classical on Tuesday. Right behind the Rebels is Narragansett, which beat North Smithfield to get to 9-1 with its lone loss coming to SK on Sept. 21.

At 9-2, Chariho is right up there with the two teams. The Chargers lost to both teams by 4-3 scores, falling to Narragansett on Sept. 8 and South Kingstown on Oct. 6. Right now, Chariho is playing the type of tennis it hoped for in the preseason coming off last year’s 11-2 season that ended with a loss to eventual champion Ponaganset in the semifinals.

“We only lost a couple of people since last year so we think we actually have a chance of going to the championship,” Ballard said. “Our mindset has changed to a winning attitude.”

“We just have a really good team relationship,” Owren said. “And we’re all really good players, which really helps.”

Tuesday's match was a chance to prove as much. Lincoln was coming in hungry following a loss to Westerly last Thursday, but Chariho got off the hour-long bus ride ready to roll.

With six matches going on at once, momentum swings can be huge but Owren got the tide turning on the Chargers' side early with a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 4, a result that’s been fairly common this season.

“Every position is important. No. 4 is as important as any other,” Owren said. “[Winning first] helps raise morale and help them thing they can also do it. It kind of just helps the score and helps everyone win.”

“It’s really awesome because you see they won and then you’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I want to win for them,' " Ballard said. “They won so now I have to win.”

Kaitlyn Daniels and Lily Jackson were next off the courts with a win at No. 2 doubles and it wasn’t long before Allison Cole and Sara Johnson picked up a win at No. 1 doubles.

Ballard was battling in the second set at No. 1, but managed to hold on in the second set to clinch the match with her 6-1, 6-3 win.

Lincoln avoided the sweep with a pair of tough victories. Freshman Anna Danis won, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 2 and Alexandra Olley won an abbreviated three-set match at No. 3 singles.

The Lions were in the hunt at No. 3 doubles, but the Chariho twosome of Olivia Gray and Molly Owren won the shortened third-set tiebreaker for the final point of the day.

“We’ve played great teams at the beginning but were able to persevere through. As the season has gone by, we’ve played tougher and tougher opponents and Chariho was a great example of that,” Olley said. “We were not expecting to do well, but we were going to go out there and try our best.”

Lincoln’s going to have to continue to leave it all out there in its last three matches. While it can’t earn a top two seed, sliding into the No. 3 or 4 spot and earning a home match for the quarterfinals is still a possibility. Being the No. 5 or 6 seed comes with the potential of hosting a preliminary-round match and, if the Lions can’t get there, they’d have to take to the road in that round.

“We just have to keep having our heads up, keep doing everything we can and keep knowing if we do everything we can win and we’ll get into the playoffs,” Olley said. “This team as a whole is one big friend group. We’ve all known each other for a very long time and we can all push each other and knowing we can support each other gives us a great chance to get to playoffs or even the championship if we so choose.”

Chariho has a similar mindset. For the Chargers to earn a top two seed, they would need to win out and hope SK or Narragansett takes a couple of upset losses down the stretch.

But Chariho knows that even if it doesn’t earn a top two seed, it doesn’t mean it's out of title contention and has faith that if it sees one of those teams again, there’s no reason why it can’t win.

“We played Narragansett at the very beginning of the season and I think we’ve improved a lot since then,” Ballard said. “We need to keep pushing forward and try our best. Even though we have been winning a lot of games, we need to keep that mindset of trying our best.”

“We have a pretty good shot at this year of getting higher than we have been in past years,” Owren said. “We’re still trying to figure it out, but practice and keeping this bond that everyone has during these next few games will help.”

SINGLES: Emily Ballard, C, def. Katherine Kilsey, 6-1, 6-3; Anna Danis, L, def. Megan Ballard, 6-4, 6-3; Alexandra Olley, L, def. Sadie Grissom, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 11-9; Faith Owren, C, def. Isabella Ackerman, L, 6-0, 6-0.

DOUBLES: Allison Cole/Sara Johnson, C, def. Ellisynn Letourneau/Holly Pickering, L, 6-3, 6-0; Kaitlyn Daniels/Lily Jackson, C, def. Grace Connors/Maddie Letourneau, L, 6-2, 6-0. Olivia Gray/Molly Owren, C, def. Amelie Archambault/Tanui Bobbili, 6-0, 2-6, 10-6.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Chariho remains in D-II girls tennis title contention with victory over Lincoln