EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School girls’ tennis team advanced to the Division III playoff semifinals after the Townies defeated visiting Cranston East, 4-2, in a quarterfinal match Friday afternoon, Oct. 28.

East Providence, seeded second in the league championship tournament, survived a stern test provided by the seventh-seeded Thunderbolts, who earned their way into the quarterfinals with a 4-0 over Coventry earlier last week in a preliminary round match. The locals swept the three doubles outings against their upstart opponents and won one of the three singles contests completed.

EPHS moved on to the semifinals for a home match against third-seeded Scituate at the Townie Tennis Complex on Thursday night, Nov. 3, at 5 p.m. The Spartans defeated Providence Country Day by a similar 4-2 count in their quarter last Thursday, Oct. 27. East Providence and Scituate met in the regular season just two weeks prior, the locals earning a narrow 4-3 win.

“I think it’s going to be a well fought match by both teams,” EPHS interim head coach Slade Sharma said of the Townies’ rematch with Scituate. “Even though we were successful the first time around against them, we aren’t looking to that success as a reason that we’re going to win this match. We’re just gonna put the work in over the coming days to prepare ourselves for what we believe is going to be a battle.”

As they’ve done all season for the locals, the Townies’ Nos. 2 and 3 doubles tandems came through in the clutch, earning the deciding points in the match.

E.P.’s second duo of Caroline Haggerty-Paris Martin rallied after dropping the first set, 2-6, to win out 6-4 and 6-3. Haggerty and Martin upped their record as a pair to 12-0 on the fall while giving the Townies a 3-2 lead over the ‘Bolts at the time.

On the adjacent court, the Townies’ third tandem of Tianna Brierly-Emma Gillheeney were, likewise, doing what they’ve done throughout the season to date: win their match. Brierly remained undefeated as half a doubles team at 14-0 and Gillheeney improved her record to 9-0 with their 4-and-4 victory. Of most importance, the point they earned gave EPHS the overall win.

“We knew this was going to be a much tougher match than how our regular season match played out. Cranston East is a good team,” said Sharma, referring to the Townies’ 6-0 win over the Thunderbolts in late September.

Things began well for EPHS as the locals won the opening sets in the first six matches on court, but Cranston East soon showed it wasn’t going away easily.

East Providence did take a rather quick 2-0 lead. The Townies’ top doubles duo of Katelyn Furtado and Isabella Hurley raced to a 6-0, 6-2 win. A bit later, Hope Moran swept her match at third singles for the locals, 3-and-1.

The Thunderbolts, though, claimed the next two points with competitive, but nonetheless straight set wins at first and second singles. E.P.’s one Jaelyn Dasilva lost 6-7 (6-8) and 4-6 while at two Lena Shanty fell 3-6, 5-7.

If things needed to go all the way to the finish, it likely would have been a nail-biter to the end.

The seventh contest of the day, at fourth singles, saw the Townies’ Santana Pannone, unbeaten during the regular season at 11-0, and her opponent from East split the opening sets in two tiebreakers. The match ended  early in the third on serve when Brierly and Gillheeney earned the decisive overall point.