Queen of the city: Manchester athlete takes individual crown

MANCHESTER, NH – She finished runner-up as a sophomore and placed top-four as a junior.

In this, her final shot at a state individual girls tennis championship, Manchester Central High School standout Emily Leclerc said she was going to leave it all on the court.

And in doing so, Leclerc did something that few Queen City high school athletes have been able to accomplish in recent history.

She became a state champion.

Competing against Derryfield School’s top player, Sophia Correnti, who six days earlier led her team to a state championship, Leclerc won the first contest before Correnti bounced back to take the second, 6-2, which forced a first-to-10 tiebreaker.

There, Leclerc didn’t leave the outcome to chance, sprinting out of the gate to a 9-1 advantage before holding off one last charge from Correnti to earn a 10-3 triumph and take the crown.

“Every point I got was a battle,” said Correnti. “She’s so good and so unpredictable. It was a really good match.”

When the two played in a team match earlier this year (a 7-2 Derryfield win on April 10) Leclerc won, 8-5, but she said Correnti stepped up the intensity level and brought a lot of pressure in the individual final.

“She’s a really smart player,” said Leclerc of Correnti. “The high balls are really tough and she knows when to go for it and she knows when to hold it back, so it’s a solid style of play.”

To win it, especially after such an intense final, came as a huge relief, said Leclerc.

“It was a big weight off my shoulders, for sure,” she said. “Winning it my senior year was a picture perfect moment for me.”

The win represented the first dry-land* state varsity championship for a Manchester public high school since the Central girls soccer team won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018

“That’s one of the things I had written down in my notebook, was to represent Manchester… so it was great to go out there and represent my city, especially with (high school) sports in Manchester declining a little bit,” she said. “There’s a lot of combining of teams going on and a lot of kids are going to private schools, and I think we need to keep the athletes in Manchester.

“We still have athletes who work really hard every day who deserve be noticed so this is good to show we’re not backing down,” added Leclerc. “Manchester’s still here and we need to keep this rolling.”

Leclerc now looks to continue her personal success as she advances to  the collegiate level where she’ll compete for Endicott College next year.

“I’m super excited to keep it going and keep getting better,” she said.

To get to the final, Leclerc defeated Keene’s Justine Porowski – 6-0, 6-4 – while Correnti dispatched Souhegan’s Callie Perrin on the other semifinal court.

Correnti, a junior, said she’s intent on following Leclerc’s example and closing out her high school career as an individual champion next year.

“I mean, obviously Callie (Perrin) and some other girls are going to be there next year,” she said, “but I feel good about (my chances) and am ready to go one more year.”

“I think she could definitely win the (individual) championship next year,” said Leclerc.

Before Correnti gets there, however, she has one more shot at a championship this year. She’ll team once again with Charlotte Smith as the two aim to win the state doubles title.

Thanks to an 8-3 quarterfinal win over the Souhegan duo of Perrin and Carolin Drum Sunday, Correnti and Smith now face Exeter’s Katie Rocha and Ava Iacobucci in the semifinals Thursday at 3 p.m. at Southern New Hampshire University.

“Me and (Smith) do a really good job of communicating and keeping each other up and positive, so we’re just going to go into it confident and try to play our game,” said Correnti.

The winner of that match will face the victor of Winnacunnet’s Stella Sebeny and Mia Botnik and Portsmouth’s Sophia Jundi and Avery Porter. The latter duo knocked Leclerc and teammate Emma Blaisdell from the tournament 9-8 (7-2) in the tournament quarterfinals Sunday.

“We had chances, we just couldn’t quite get it,” said Leclerc of the doubles loss. “They played really well in the points that matters.”

In addition to Leclerc and Correnti, Trinity’s top two players, Mallory Hobausz and Stella Piatt each competed in individual the tournament, as did Derryfield No. 2 Sofia Koshy, who defeated Kennett’s Mattie Macomber in the first round before falling to Leclerc in the quarterfinals.

*Central swimmers Allison Gowern, Conlon Hurley, Alexei Avakov and Abigail Gowern have combined for 15 individual championships since 2000.

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