Prinos Crowned South Sectional Tennis Champion

It's been quite a week for Foxborough's Alana Prinos. After qualifying for the South Sectional Finals in the MIAA Individual Tennis Tournament, Prinos led the Warriors to their first Hockomock League Title on Thursday afternoon. Most athletes would already consider this to be a good week. With another title in her sight, Prinos completed her week with a very big win in the MIAA Individual Tennis South Sectional Finals against Milton's Ariana Launie 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Prinos is one of those athletes that was born to play the sport. Learning to play tennis at the young age of 3, Alana Prinos was raised on the tennis courts. A veteran of multiple USTA tournaments with a room full of trophies to prove it, this was the kind of the week that showed the type of competitor Prinos is.

On Thursday, Prinos led the Warriors to their first league title. The program's turn around led by her, her sister Emma Prinos, and Hallie Young has heads turning at Foxborough High, which is not use to having dominate tennis players.

"Its so exciting to be apart of a team that does so well. We (Foxborough) do pretty well in some sports but tennis hasn’t always been one of them. Its excited to have tennis be making a name for itself in this town," said Prinos.

With very little time to celebrate, Prinos had 2 days to prepare for a rematch with Ariana Launie of Milton High School. Prinos already faced Launie when she won the South Sectional title as a freshman, so the matchup wasn't unfamiliar. As someone who was known for blazing though matches and winning in straight sets, this match was set to be Prinos' most challenging match of the year.

Launie jumped out to an early 0-3 lead in the 1st set. With nerves getting the better of Prinos, Launie was able to capitalize on the chance to get an early lead.

"Sometimes I just get bad starts and I had warm up and everything but just trying to get your mind together its a little difficult and I came out here and I just had to collect myself," said Prinos after the match.

Despite the deficit, Prinos would roar back to win the set 6-3 and win a very important 1st set.

To win the opening set, Prinos had to force Launie to make errors. Facing a power player, it would be unwise to attack Launie with more power.

In the 2nd set, Prinos started strong. Getting a 3-2 lead, Launie came back to win the set 3-6 to force Prinos' first 3 set match all season.

Momentum was on the side of Launie after winning the 6th game of the match. Holding Prinos to no points in two of the game and winning tiebreakers with ease. It appeared that the winning of the match would be the one who could end the match with the most momentum.

That momentum continued into the final set. With Prinos looking flustered early on, Launie looked in control of the match. Things looked closed until the end of the 3rd game. With the set tied a 1, Prinos smashed a ball that was wide right of the court and smashed it up the right side to surprise Launie and to take a 2-1 lead in the set.

"That (the shot) was so much fun. Those don’t happen often. Its always fun when you can hit one of those and you surprise yourself. Your like oh I got that over. Its nice," said Prinos.

The shot sent all momentum towards Prinos. Launie had a chance to come back when she got to within 1 game but it would not be enough. Prinos would rally to win the set 6-3 and take her second South Sectional crown in 3 years.

"I thought Alana played a really good high quality match. It's the best I’ve ever seen her play," said Alana's coach and father Peter Prinos.
   
The win continues what has been a highlight year for Prinos. Having yet to lose a match, Prinos will advance to the state semifinals at Clark University. The match take place at 9am on June 18th.