The undefeated East Providence girls' lacrosse team remains undefeated eight games into their 2025 season after surviving Smithfield 8-7 in overtime last Thursday afternoon, and following it up with a 15-5 dismantling of Cranston East on Monday.

Alyssa Karalekas scored four goals for the first place Townies against Smithfield, including the game winner. Kat Almeida scored 2 goals, Sydney Olsen and Ella Benson each added one. Goalkeeper Ava Williams made 9 saves during the win.

“We are a goal scoring team,” said Karalekas. “We always want to keep scoring and play aggressive, no matter what.”

The Townies prolific offense has scored 97 goals this season. Karalekas, a junior midfielder, leads East Providence with 24 goals. Benson, a sophomore midfielder, has scored 20 and Kloey Iacavone, a senior midfielder, has tallied 19 goals.

“We are a senior heavy team,” said second-year head coach Nick Boyce. “The girls know the game well and continue to improve every game.”

“We have a lot of leadership on the team,” said Iacovone. We communicate pretty well. We are all really close and are good friends and I think that definitely contributes to how we play on the field.”

The competitive Iacovone, who played goalkeeper in soccer, is attempting to improve on her 50-goal total from last season.

“I’m hoping to close in on 100,” she said.

Keeping the ball out of the goal
The Townies have also done a terrific job of keeping the ball out of the goal, with just 44 goals against. Ava Williams the team’s senior goalie, has made 58 saves this season. She gets a lot of help from the Townies’ backline of seniors - Ava Soares and Abby Leddy and juniors - Jayla DeGraca and Aubrey Facteau.

Leddy, a former attacker, switched to defense to help out on the backline.

“We play very smart defensively,” she said. “We’ve been doing a good job of keeping our cool and working together to limit scoring.”

Coach Boyce stepped up to coach the Townies a year ago, when then coach Haley McCusker-O’keefe, left to coach for Revolution Lacrosse in East Greenwich.

“We are very thankful that Coach Boyce stepped up,” Iacovone said. “Last season we didn't have a coach and it was kind of an adjustment with him walking in and we're super grateful that he's still here with us. He has had a really positive impact on the team and kind of puts us all in check.”