La Salle's hard work led to the most fun moment of the tennis season.

PAWTUCKET – Tom Martin’s girls tennis practices are all business. When La Salle shows up to put in work, they put in work. No music. No goofing around. It's about improvement and being better the next day than you were the day before.So the Rams practice like they play – and save the fun for days like Saturday.While everyone in the state expected La Salle to roll in to Slater Park and roll out with a title, the Rams didn’t expect anything. La Salle showed up, went to work and got the job done, with Sloane Ferrara completing a second-set comeback to earn the clinching point at No. 2 singles in the Rams’ 4-0 win over Prout, earning the program’s 13th straight state championship.“We’ve been working toward it all season. Obviously, we didn’t take them lightly,” Ferrara said. “… We just took it day by day and we ended up here with them.”“It feels amazing because I watched everybody improve and develop over the season,” La Salle No. 1 Caroline Trask said. “It’s just so great everybody’s work and hard work to be put it and it just feels so good.”A dynasty doesn’t happen by accident and what happened on October 31 showed it.Martin has had different levels of talent on his rosters over the years, but that hasn’t changed the approach. This year’s team was loaded with returners, starting with Trask on top, and a title was expected by everyone who doesn’t wear maroon and white.When the girls show up to practice, they’re not showered in praise. They’re put to work and while it’s not drill camp, it’s not what you see at a lot of practices throughout the state.“We always say we have to practice how we play a match,” Ferrara said. “There’s no music, there’s no fun. We warm up the same way we warm up for a match and then we just play practice.”La Salle’s championship experience usually gives it an advantage at Slater Park, its home away from home, but Prout isn’t exactly a stranger to Pawtucket. The Crusaders were Division II finalist in 2024, won the D-II crown last fall and, even with a 6-1 loss to the Rams during the regular season, didn’t make the long trip north to lose.The 4-0 score reads blowout, but the match was hardly that.Trask, who was a finalist in the 2026 RIIL Girls Singles State Tournament, took care of business at No. 1 to get La Salle off to the start it needed.“I knew my team was working toward it,” Trask said. “… I had no pressure on me because if I didn’t pull through, if I didn’t have my match set, I think my team would have had my back.”Freshman Carina Laoriello was next off with a 6-0, 6-3 win at No. 4 singles and after Alessandra Santoro and Brinley Frietas – the state doubles champs – finished off their match at No. 2, 7-5, 6-1, it seemed it wouldn’t be long until the Rams had their championship.Prout made La Salle work for it. No. 3 Olivia Lemay was battling in the second, trying to force a third set, and the No. 1 doubles team of Caitlin O’Hara and Ari Muselor and the No. 3 team of Ali Lewis and Caitlin Lentz were doing the same.Ferrara looked like she’d be playing a third set. The junior topped Reece Campbell, 6-4, in the opening set, but Campbell found a spark and led 4-1 in the second. Momentum was on the Crusaders’ side.During a changeover, Martin came out to speak to Ferrara, giving advice that clearly resonated with his No. 2.“Mr. Martin just told me to think positive,” Ferrara said. “You can never get down on yourself for tennis because truly anything can happen, clearly.“I just thought about keeping the ball in and kept thinking about my strategies and what I was going to do differently and it just worked.”Ferrara wasn’t focused on anything but the next point. She didn’t see Prout gaining ground in the matches behind around her. She kept grinding out points, taking game after game, until the last point was won.She reacted accordingly after closing out the match – and then noticed a flock of Rams coming her way.“I didn’t realize it was the fourth one, until all my friends started coming out,” Ferrara said. “… It was crazy, it was pure shock. I’m so thankful, but it was pure shock.”Prout handled the loss like championship programs should. Realignment pushes title teams up a division all the time, but rarely do those teams find dominant success in their first year against better competition.The Crusaders weren’t supposed to be in Pawtucket Saturday. Getting there was a win – and it also showed how strong the program is right now.“It just shows us how much potential we have and that we’re a great team,” said Olivia Siravo, the All-Stater who plays No. 1. “Just being here shows us how much potential we have in Division I and as a team.”There’s a chance Prout will make a return trip next fall. The Crusaders graduate two seniors – O’Hara and doubles player Cathryn Cavanagh – and with eight returners back, there’s no reason why they can’t contend for the crown.“It just shows us how close we can be,” Siravo said. “Being so close, that just means we have to train that much harder in the offseason.”La Salle will be doing the same. The Rams lose Freitas and Santoro as well as No. 3 doubles player Nina Lantini, but the rest of the squad will be back.They won’t expect to be given a trip to Pawtucket. La Salle will enter the season with the same plan as it had this fall and in past years because, as they’ve learned, it makes the payoff so much better.“I feel like this celebration was pretty good,” Trask said. “It just gets better and better every year.”La Salle 4, Prout 0SINGLES: 1, Caroline Trask, LSA, def. Olivia Siravo, P, 6-0, 6-0; 2, Sloan Ferrara, LSA, def. Reece Campbell, P, 4, Carina Lamoriello, LSA, def. CeCe Barmes, P, 6-0, 6-3.DOUBLES: 2, Brinley Freitas/Alessandra Santoro, LSA, def. Cathryn Cavanagh/Abby Cichon, P, 7-5, 6-1.DID NOT FINISH: Singles - 3, Holly Speranza, LSA, led Olivia Lemay, 7-5, 1-3. Doubles – 1, Ella Kozlik/Arianna Roye, LSA, led Ari Muselor/Caitlin O’Hara, P, 6-1, 5-6; 3, Nini Lantini/Ella Pollock, LSA, led Caitlin Lentz/Ali Lewis, P, 6-4, 5-6.This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: La Salle's hard work led to the most fun moment of the tennis season.