Pine-Richland freshman powers through postseason to earn spot at states

By: Jerin Steele
Saturday, September 30, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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When asked what traits a tennis player needs, Caroline Prisk gave a detailed answer and never mentioned anything about hitting a ball.

That’s not to discount the physical mechanics needed to thrive on a court, but she’s more focused on the psychological part of the sport.

“You have to be mentally strong, and one of the key factors in that is persistence because you lose a lot in tennis,” Prisk said. “You usually lose just as much as you win, so keeping with it is important. If you’re not doing well in a match, you have to be persistent and keep fighting back. It’s also important to motivate yourself and have that motivation to try hard every time you play on the court. Keeping calm definitely helps too.”

Prisk, a freshman at Pine-Richland, displayed all of those attributes to earn herself a trip to states.

First there was the sectional tournament, where she was under the weather and willed herself to a section title.

Then came the Class 3A WPIAL singles championship, where in the consolation match, she was facing elimination on match point multiple times but clawed her way back to win the second set and then the third to get the final state playoff berth.

At sectionals, Prisk was the top seed and ran through the bracket to the finals, where she met North Allegheny’s Laeticia Tici-Wessel. Prisk beat Tici-Wessel, 6-2, 6-0, in the final.

“I was definitely not feeling great, but I just did my best to ignore it and power through,” Prisk said. “I knew I wanted to play and have that opportunity to compete as a freshman that I wasn’t going to have again.”

At the time she didn’t know it, but a rematch with Tici-Wessel was on the horizon.

After Prisk fell to eventual 3A champ Meriwether McCargo of Shady Side Academy, 6-4, 7-6, in the WPIAL semifinals, Prisk was matched up with Tici-Wessel again in the consolation match the following day.

Tici-Wessel took the first set 6-3 and was ahead 5-4 in the second set but Prisk stared elimination down and battled back to win 7-5. Prisk took the third set 6-1 to clinch the match.

“I really wanted to turn it around for the (consolation) match, because I knew that third place went onto states,” Prisk said. “I knew I had to play well. Laeticia played really well that day. We had a great, very long match. I was able to pull out a win and it was a lot of fun.”

Prisk is the first Pine-Richland representative at states since the 2017 team qualified.

In 2020, Elaine Qian finished second at the WPIAL tournament and would’ve qualified for states any other year, but due to covid restrictions, only the winner advanced.

Prisk comes from a tennis family. Her mother and two uncles played growing up and both uncles went on to play in college.

She plays regularly in USTA junior tournaments.

Now she’ll have a little over a month to prepare for her first state tournament.

The PIAA singles championship begins Nov. 3 at the Hershey Racquet Club.

“I’m really excited to go to Hershey and play,” Prisk said. “I’m just going to keep playing our matches with the team and try and get a little better and more prepared for states to hopefully do well.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

Tags: Pine-Richland