PROVIDENCE — When East Providence High School’s James McShane last played his opponent from Chariho at second singles Christian Resinger during a regular season match some seven weeks ago before a handful of spectators in city at the KendBrin Swim & Tennis Club he needed all three sets and two-and-a-half hours to complete the win.

When the same two competitors met this past Saturday, June 4, the situation, the venue and the stakes were much more significant, but the result was the same.

McShane took only around 90 minutes and two sets to dispatch Resinger this time around by the scores of 6-3 and 6-4 to secure the deciding point for the Townies as they captured the 2022 Division III boys’ tennis championship with a 4-2 win over the Chargers in front of a couple hundred spectators at the Brown University tennis facility.

“It wasn’t just me who won it. It was all my buddies who won it. I’m super proud of the team. I’m pretty happy right now,” McShane said after his clinching victory. “It was good. All my friends and family are up there. I knew I had to win.”

McShane’s victory came after the No. 1 doubles tandem of Jaydon Amaral-Nathan Thurber earned East Providence’s first point of the day, followed a bit later by Miguel Flores’ win at third singles and Brayden Rouette’s triumph at first singles.

Of note, each of the players to earn points in the championship match for the Townies are sophomores and nine of the 10 East Providence starters are in that class.

“We’re all sophomores,” McShane added. “We all came in last year, well some of us, and we recruited some others this year. We’ve got that winning mentality and now I bet more people will want to join. I guess you could qualify us as ‘tennis guys’ now. And maybe we can go back-to-back.”

Historical notes

For the Townies, seeded second in the playoffs, the championship was the seventh all-time in school history, their second in the D-III ranks to go along with a title won in 1993 and first since head coach Paul Amaral guided the team to back-to-back D-II titles in 2001 and 2002.

“This is sweet because these kids came from the bottom up,” Amaral said of the 2022 championship. “Some of them didn’t even have their own racquets. They weren’t ‘tennis’ guys. But they bought into the belief that they could just enjoy this game, get better and be friends. And have a special experience while doing it. And build a program. I don’t know if they fully understand it to that degree, but they have a conception that we’re building something special.”

East Providence completed its year with a 15-1 overall record in league matches. The Townies defeated seventh-seeded West Warwick, 4-0, and third-seeded neighbor Providence Country Day, 4-3, in the quarterfinals and semis, respectively.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s like this peace in the storm. There’s a joy. I really want to scream. You have that enthusiasm for the kids. This is all about the kids. It really is. We’re here for them and we want them to have a great experience,” said Amaral, who was assisted by former Townie player Slade Sharma and who said preseason he believed this group of Townies could compete for a division title.

He continued of the season leading up the final, “It was building. We took it one match at a time. We just wanted to get better. We had some hiccups. We had some gaps in the lineup. We had some kids that had to step out, move around and just train to be the next person up. Play under pressure. And these kids, they performed under pressure. That’s what we call the eye of the storm.”

For fourth-seeded Chariho, 2022 came to a close for the Chargers with a 10-5 overall record, including an upset victory over previously unbeaten and top-seeded St. Raphael, 4-3, in their semi. One of Chariho’s losses came in the aforementioned match against the Townies by a similar 4-3 score. And East Providence's lone defeat came to the Saints, again 4-3.

“I thought we were going to play St. Ray’s and get our revenge on them either way, but it worked out. We ended up playing Chariho and we won the state championship,” McShane added. “Something else about St. Ray’s, their No. 1 said that they were the team to beat, but that scoreboards don’t show it. I guess the scoreboards do show it now I guess.”

Match notes

The tandem of Amaral and Thurber showed how good they were as pair on their way to the afternoon’s first point with a relatively quick and easy 6-2, 6-3 win. The Townies won the first five games of the match before the Chargers took the next two. Amaral eventually ended the set with a cross-court shot from the baseline Chariho couldn’t get back in play.

The second set followed the same form. East Providence got up early and later closed it out on a service winner by Amaral, who said afterwards, “It was more intense, the atmosphere, everyone around cheering and stuff. There was a lot more pressure, but we pulled through like always.”

Said Thurber, “We just stayed aggressive the whole time. Put the pressure on early. It was no different than what we’ve done all season.”

Amaral was undefeated for the spring at one half of first doubles, finishing his initial season playing the sport with a 16-0 record. Nine of those victories came with Thurber as his partner. The other seven came in tandem with Jordan O’Hara, who swapped spots on the Townies’ ladder with Thurber, who played only three matches as a freshman, at fourth singles. O’Hara lost his outing against Chariho Saturday 0-6, 5-7.

“Starting out in April and being here in June, still playing, playing for a championship, it’s been fun,” Amaral added.

Chariho leveled the overall match with its 6-1, 6-4 win at third doubles. East Providence’s tandem of Jaydon Massa and Angel Lucas were visibly nervous in their first set, then settled down a bit in the second, though it proved too late to recover.

East Providence, however, was shortly thereafter on the verge of claiming the initial points of the day in singles. Flores, who fell to the Chargers’ Phillip Abby 4-and-4 during the regular season, was in the process of doing a 180. He beat Abby 3-and-4 Saturday to make it 2-1 Townies.

“The pressure was at an all-time high,” Flores explained. “We worked all season for this. I trusted everyone here. Our singles, we had a job to do. Last time Jordan had my back now I had his. We got that pivotal point, which I lost against them last time. I had to step up for the championship.”

Minutes later, Rouette defeated Chariho’s Cooper Beck at the No. 1 solo spot 6-3 and 6-0 to put East Providence on the precipice of the overall team win. For Rouette, who went winless atop the Townie order as a freshman last spring, it was his first ever shutout set win or in tennis parlance, a “bagel.”

“Obviously we were all coming in here with nerves. We’ve never been in this situation before, especially it being only the second season for most of us and we barely made it to playoffs last year,” said Rouette. “When we started I felt the nerves. I felt a little cold, but as I got into the first set I realized that we’re here for a reason and I could get the job done. After I won the first set 6-3, I was just feeling it in the second set. I was loose. I knew what I had to do.”

Winning point

Rouette’s win set the stage for McShane, who outlasted Resinger 3-6, 7-5 and 7-6 in their regular season bout on April 12.

Saturday, it was the East Providence player who controlled the pace of the match from the outset, using his slice off both sides to keep his opponent deep and move him around the court.

Serving for the match, he went up 30-love then 40-15, but Resinger forced a deuce point to decide the game and ultimately the match, which ended when his forehand sailed beyond the baseline at McShane’s feet.

“I kind of understood at the end if I won this, we would win,” McShane added. “I saw Brayden won. I figured Miguel won and I knew our first doubles would win. They always win, so I figured I would be the fourth point. I was kind of nervous. I didn’t know what was going on on the other side of the fence, but I figured we were winning.”

Not to go unmentioned, East Providence’s No. 2 doubles team of Adam Sullivan, the lone Townie senior, and Jeff Bento rallied after losing their first set in a tiebreaker to take the second and force a third. But when McShane clinched the overall match, their outing also came to a close without a final decision.