EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School girls’ tennis team cemented itself among the top sides in Division III as the league playoffs approach after the Townies eventually pulled away from next-door neighbor Providence Country Day on a windy Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 19, en route to a 5-2 victory at the new EPHS complex.

East Providence improved its record to 12-1 with one regular season match remaining against visiting Shea Thursday, Oct. 19. The Knights, finally healthy and whole following early season injuries, entered Wednesday on a five-match heater. The loss dropped them to 8-5 with one last regular season date in Coventry Thursday as well.

Playoff pursuit
Bay View continued to lead the D-III ranks with a perfect 13-0 record, including a 4-3 win over the Townies earlier in the season. The Bengals were set to meet Scituate, like East Providence 12-1, in the last regular season match for both sides also on October 20. The Townies handed the Spartans their lone loss, 4-3, a week ago.

If Bay View beats Scituate, the top half of the playoff bracket is relatively simple. The Bengals with be the one seed, East Providence the two and Scituate the three.

If Scituate wins, it would likely create a three-way tie for first place and each team would have beaten the other.

One of the tiebreakers could be the total points of matches between the three.  E.P. would have seven with the 4-3 win and loss. Bay View entered the finale against Scituate with four off its win over the Townies and the Spartans three off their loss to EPHS.

Another tiebreaker could be the number of sets each team won in their meetings. The Townies and Bay View  both took eight sets in their outing. East Providence also won eight sets but lost just six against Scituate.

Still one more breaker could be the  total games won in those contests. In Bay View’s victory over E.P., the Bengals won 76 games to the 70 of the Townies. East Providence held a 68-54 advantage in games won in their win.

PCD match notes
The overall outing between the Townies-Knights last Wednesday stayed relatively close for a while before the hosts gradually took control.

First off the court, East Providence’s Jaelyn Dasilva lost to PCD’s standout left-handed junior Emma DiPardo decisively, 6-0 and 6-0, at No. 1 singles. DiPardo, a transfer student from Lincoln High just eligible for the Knights at the mid-way mark of the season, continually moved Dasilva around the court, winning points with crisp strokes from both sides.

The Townies soon after close out three of the next four matches off the court to take an overall 3-2 edge. At fourth singles, East Providence’s Santana Pannone recorded a 1-and-4 defeat of Iris Petrillo. At first doubles, the Townie tandem of Katelyn Furtado and Isabella Hurley were 1-and-2 winners over Yutong Li and Sophia Sodhi then No. 2 EPHS duo of Caroline Haggerty-Paris Martin were 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 victors over Mays Miller and Nora Calhoun.

In between, the Knights’ Marguerite Cuzzone handed East Providence’s Hope Moran just her second loss in 13 outings at the time with a 6-4, 6-2 decision. Moran, up early in the first, never fully recovered after cramping up mid-way through the opening set.

Though late in the day, East Providence’s third duo of Tianna Brierly-Emma Gillheeney easily defeated Hannah Eno and Sisi Rezendes, 2-and-0, to earn the fourth and decisive point in the overall match.

Soon after, E.P.’s Leah Shanty beat the Knights’ Caroline Demetrakas in what was lengthy match timewise, though not necessarily on the scoreboard. Shanty took the outing by the scores of 6-4,  6-2.

“We faced really great competition and I thought our team responded very well,” EPHS interim head coach Slade Sharma said of the meeting with the Knights. “We are all trying to default to positivity, especially in the moments where the pressure feels high. And we have really tried as a team to see adversity as an opportunity to put our best selves forward. I think (last Wednesday) was perfect example of that, as PCD is a very competitive, well coached team and we were able to get the job done.”

Individual notes
Members of both East Providence and PCD were working on some highly impressive individual results during the regular season.

The Townies’ Haggerty and Martin both saw their records, together and with other partners, improve to 11-0 overall. As a tandem at second dub, they were 9-0.

Brierly, a first-year junior who only took up the sport over the summer in anticipation of joining the team, also remained undefeated overall at 12-0. Her partner often at the third position, Emma Gillheeney, was 7-0 heading into the last regular season match.

Doubles has been a strong suit for the Townies all season. East Providence teams playing at the Nos. 2 and 3 pairing hadn’t lost in their first 13 matches.

The Townies’ tandems made an impression on PCD head coach Mike Silva, who reckoned all three pairings were “really good” and that they could “compete at high Division II level.” Silva had particular praise for the Haggerty-Martin and Brierly-Gillheeney duos, referring to their games as “insane.”

There were some superb singles players on display as well in the EPHS-PCD match.

The Townies’ Pannone improved her solo record to 9-0 from the No. 4 spot. The Knights’ DiPardo upped her record 6-0 at the time. She just recently won the D-III individual tournament title and reached the state tournament solo quarters before falling to East Greenwich’s Annalee Ambler, 4-and-4.