EAST PROVIDENCE — Under the lights on a quite mild mid-fall evening and before a huge throng of supporters at the new Townie Tennis Complex, host East Providence defeated Scituate by a 4-1 score in the semifinals of the Division III championship playoffs.

As they did a week earlier in a 4-2 win over Cranston East in the quarterfinal round, the EPHS No. 3 doubles tandem of junior Tianna Brierly and senior Emma Gillheeney earned the deciding point in the overall match for the Townies.

Brierly and Gillheeney, who remained undefeated as a team at 9-0, were winners in two relatively easy sets, 6-3 and 6-2. Brierly, with all partners, improved to 15-0, while Gillheeney upped her record to 10-0.

“We know that when they’re out there they’re gonna give all of themselves to get it done,” EPHS interim head coach Slade Sharma said of junior/senior duo. “It gives us confidence everywhere else because we know they’re gonna deliver.”

Finals notes
The Townies advanced to the league championship match Saturday morning, Nov. 5, at Pawtucket’s Slater Park where they’ll meet neighboring Bay View at 11 a.m. The top-seeded and unbeaten Bengals defeated Woonsocket in their semi by a 5-2 score.

Bay View, 18-0 entering the final, handed East Providence, 17-1, its lone loss to date this fall. The Bengals edged the Townies, 4-3, in their lone regular season meeting back on September 12.

“These guys believe in each other so much. I believe in them so much. That’s all we need, as long as we have that it doesn’t matter what the score is at the end of it all,” said Sharma. “But we’ve got more work to do, the job isn’t finished.”

Sciutate notes
Prior to the Brierly-Gilheeney win to clinch the match, the Townies recorded the first two points of the evening in quick succession.

Freshman Hope Moran showed no first-year jitters as she easily dispatched the Spartans’ Milana Belanger, 2-and-1, in their outing at third singles. Moran improved her solo mark to 14-2 overall.

Another of the Townies’ undefeated doubles tandems, Caroline Haggerty and Paris Martin, soon finished off their Scituate counterparts by 6-2, 6-2 scores. Haggerty and Martin improved to 13-0 for the fall when partners.

The other matches were much more competitive, including first singles were the Spartans’ Maggie Collins needed three sets to dispatch E.P.’s Jaelyn DaSilva, 2-6, 6-2 and 6-1 to cut the Townies’ overall lead in half.

But, again, almost simultaneously, East Providence regained a two-point edge when the Townies’ No. 1 duo of Isabella Hurley and Katelyn Furtado rallied to win their contest in three sets, 2-6, 6-2 and 6-2.

As the overall match was ending, East Providence’s second and fourth singles players, Lena Shanty and Santana Pannone, were early in the third sets of their outings. Each won the first set and dropped the second when Brierly and Gillheeney closed it out for the locals.