Six matches into her collegiate tennis career, Cranston native Jenna Lisi is making her mark on the court with a Rhode Island College team that has dominated the Division III scene in New England in recent years. Having only recently matriculated from La Salle, Lisi slid straight into the Anchorwomen’s lineup, making her debut in the number-two singles slot against Wentworth on September 3, facing the Leopards’ Olivia DeLuca. It was a winning start for the freshman as she picked up the point that clinched the match for RIC, taking care of her opponent 6-0, 6-1 after earlier pairing up with Michaela Burr to claim an 8-0 victory in doubles action. Lisi has since continued that momentum, winning each of her subsequent encounters in both singles and doubles, with the peak moment coming last Wednesday against Suffolk, in which she defeated the Rams’ Kendall Smith without dropping a game. Her string of successes in doubles has been more adventurous as she has been partnered with no less than three different players, but she has been able to shut out the opposition on three different occasions. As a result of her hot early season play, the Little East Conference tabbed Lisi as its rookie of the week for the week ending September 8, after helping the Anchorwomen to shutout triumphs over Wentworth and Curry and an 8-1 win against UMass-Boston. The Anchorwomen are now 6-0 on the season after defeating Worcester State 7-0 on Saturday to pick up its second triumph in Little East play, with RIC’s regular-season winning streak now at 39 straight matches. Next on the docket for Lisi and her teammates is a Division II opponent in the form of Franklin Pierce, who will welcome the Anchorwomen on Thursday after taking on Le Moyne in a Northeast-10 tilt two days earlier.

Cranston West graduate Abby Souza is seeing regular playing time on the pitch this fall for the Clark women’s soccer team, getting into the fray in each of the Cougars’ five matches to date. The junior midfielder has mostly featured as a substitute, but started Clark’s most recent match, a 2-1 overtime defeat to Endicott this past Saturday in which the Gulls scored two-and-a-half minutes into the extra session. It was the second defeat in a row for the Cougars, who started the campaign with three straight shutout victories which saw Souza get involved in the attack. In the team’s season-opening 9-0 thrashing of Framingham State on August 30, the former Falcon set up Jamie Stern for Clark’s eighth goal of the contest before getting onto the scoresheet herself two days later against Becker. Souza converted in the 22nd minute of the match, beating Hawk goalkeeper Olivia Sherwood to put the Cougars 5-0 ahead on their way to a 7-0 rout where they did not surrender a single shot. The Clark eleven will be looking to rebound from their recent slump on Tuesday with a non-conference meeting with UMass-Dartmouth before opening the conference portion of their slate on Saturday with a road trip to Worcester Polytechnic Institute.