EAST PROVIDENCE — The annual boys' tennis showdown between next-door neighbors East Providence High School and the Providence Country Day School was won this spring by the visiting Townies after they earned a narrow, 4-3 decision over the host Knights at the KendBrin Swim & Tennis Club Monday afternoon, May 8.

Both sides are new to the Division II ranks after being realigned up from D-III by the Interscholastic League. One, reigning Division III champion EPHS, has immediately found its footing, while the other, PCD, is struggling with the uptick in competition. East Providence snapped a two-match losing streak with Monday's victory and improved to 8-3 on the year while PCD fell to 4-7.

The Townies swept the three doubles outings and picked up a point at fourth singles from Miguel Flores in the junior's return to the lineup after missing most of the last month with an arm injury.

"Coming off a two-game skid, the guys have played hard, but we had some things to figure out," said EPHS head coach Slade Sharma. "And it was nice having Miguel back in the lineup. Not that we didn't have confidence in the guys who playing at the four spot with him out or that they weren't capable, but with him back it puts all our doubles teams back together. Those guys have such great chemistry. We're a different team when all of our guys are playing in their usual spots."

The Knights made things interesting by winning second and third singles in quick succession, then, after Flores' point clinched the overall result, added a win at first singles to make the final score as close as possible.

"We got beat by a deeper team. They're solid 1-7 in their lineup," said PCD head coach Mike Silva, who mentors many of the EPHS players in his role as teaching pro/general manager at Tennis Rhode Island, East Bay in city.

"We kept it close by winning the three singles matches," Silva added. "They're dubs are just a little more seasoned than our guys. They're like a year ahead grade-wise, experience-wise. They're tough to beat."

The Townies earned the first three points of the match after sweeping all three doubles outings in rather routine fashion.

The No. 3 tandem of Justin Petion-Jaydon Massa were first off the court with their 6-2, 6-2 win over PCD's Nathaniel Comiskey and Jack Calitri.

Minutes later, East Providence's No. 2 duo, really "1B" team of Jaydon Amaral and Nathan Thurber beat the Knights' Andrew Hamel and Cesar Godinez by the same 2-and-2 count.

A bit after, the Townies' official top tandem of John Vaughan and Jordan O'Hara finished off PCD's Harry Priestly and Nelson Wilson by 6-0, 7-5 scores.

At the time, East Providence appeared headed towards an easy overall victory, but PCD's Isaiah  Murad rallied from down a set (3-6) to defeat the Townies' Abigail Ellison 0-and-0 at second singles.

Similarly, Cedric Ye responded after dropping the first set of his match with EP's Brayden Rouette at No. 3 singles, 2-6, to win the next two, 2-and-1.

Now within a point, Flores' match with Aaron Sutton took on slightly more significance. Flores was up early in the first before Sutton rallied to force a tiebreaker, but his response came up short as the former won 10-8. Flores then found himself trailing 1-4 in the second before he, too, needed an answer. His proved to be the correct one as Flores won five games in a row to claim the deciding point with a 6-4 second set victory.

The last match on court, much like each of the singles contests, was a well-played and competitive outing atop the ladder between PCD's Hudson Dunn and EP's James McShane. McShane won the first, 6-3, but Dunn, known for his "Squash" slicing style, bagled his opponent in the second then won a back-and-forth third 6-4.