St. Aloysius’ tennis team will be looking to make a big splash on its home court at the MAIS Class AAA tournament.

The Flashes have seven players set to compete and a chance to take home their second straight girls’ Class AAA team championship when the tournament begins Wednesday at 9 a.m. at Halls Ferry Park.

The Lady Flashes won the South State title last week, and will need to bring their A-game to defend their state title.

“We’ll have a chance to win, we’ll just have to play a little bit better,” St. Al coach Rick Shields said.

Shields said taking home a second straight girls’ state championship could be huge for the program.

“It’d look good for us. It’s a hard mountain to climb but it’ll look good, it just says our program is pretty stable, and they do well,” Shields said.

Last year, the Lady Flashes took advantage of a scoring quirk in the state tournament and a couple of outstanding performances to take the team title with only two entries.

Teams get a point for each match victory, so the individual championships won by Elise Piazza in No. 2 girls singles and Taylor Chewning and Ashley Jarratt in No. 2 girls doubles were enough to carry them to the team title.

This time, the Lady Flashes have a little extra firepower.

Chewning and Jarratt are back to defend their No. 2 girls’ doubles championship. Elise Piazza is now teaming with her sister Anne Stewart Piazza in No. 1 girls’ doubles. Finally, Adrienne Eckstein will be competing in No. 1 girls’ singles after finishing as the runner-up at South State.

It’s the first time the senior Eckstein has reached the state tournament in singles, although she did win a mixed doubles state championship with her brother Luke earlier in her high school career.

On the boys’ side, Ryan Jarratt and Ethan Naron will compete in the No. 2 boys’ doubles bracket after placing second at South State.
Shields said he feels good about his team’s chances at the state tournament if they focus on their fundamentals.

“We want to focus on moving a little bit more, serving better, and volleying better,” Shields said. “Just overall, if we move a little better and volley a little better we’ll probably do a little better.”