Sports
Portsmouth High Tennis Lose to East Greenwich 4-1
Portsmouth High School's boys' tennis team lost to East Greenwich on Saturday.
Portsmouth High School's boys lost to East Greenwich 4-1 on Saturday at Wheeler Farm.
East Greenwich's first doubles team Aidan McNamara and Jason Brown took the lead first, 6-0, 6-3. Chris Shea at fourth singles, 6-1, 6-0, put the pressure on Portsmouth. Wins by Chris Mainiero at third singles and Andrew Perkins and Nikhil Mahadevan at third doubles sealed the deal for the Avengers.
In the playoffs, play is suspended after a school gets four wins.
“This is the toughest match Portmouth’s given us all year,” said Brown afterwards. East Greenwich beat Portsmouth twice during the regular season.
Despite that, East Greenwich was nervous starting out, according to Coach David Kelaghan.
“They were nervous in the beginning, because it’s the playoffs,” Kelaghan said. “It’s tough going in undefeated because there’s the pressure not to lose.”
Senior Chris Mainiero agreed. “I started off the first set terribly tense. Once I won the first set, I relaxed.” He won 6-4, 6-1.
Portsmouth captain Nick Carter, who was ahead in his first singles match against Shiv Patel before the match was halted, said afterward his team had come to win.
“We were pretty confident coming here. We were hoping we would get a little lady luck on our side,” he said.
For East Greenwich, it’s on to the championship against Cranston West, who beat Prout 4-0 Saturday.