East Providence's Abigail Ellison is winning points, and minds, for the boys tennis team.

EAST GREENWICH — She’s a girl playing on a boys tennis team, but Abigail Ellison isn’t trying to prove a point. She’s trying to win them.

Girls playing boys tennis isn’t something new to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League. Girls playing near the top of the ladder and having success on a team that’s in title contention is.

Ellison wasn’t trying to send a message when she decided she wanted to play for the East Providence boys tennis team. Playing for the girls team, she could have chased accolades, such as a championship or All-State honors, but that wasn’t what interested her.

What did Ellison want? Exactly what every athlete should when they play a sport.

“I wanted that challenge for myself,” Ellison said after losing a tough three-set match to East Greenwich’s Ben Neimark, a 6-foot-3-inch senior with long ground strokes and a massive serve who’s one of the best players in Division II. “I didn’t want to get here easy. I wanted to play with the boys because it’s more competitive and I wanted to get better.”

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If it weren’t for COVID, Ellison might have never picked up a racket.

Ellison’s parents weren’t tennis people and swim was Ellison’s sport of choice. COVID removed the option of indoor sports but tennis was something she could try. Things didn’t start very well but athleticism soon won out and it wasn’t long before she started taking private lessons.

While 11 seems like a normal age to start a sport, Ellison was years behind her peers but she caught up and her obsession with the sport grew.

Every now and then, after lessons as an eighth grader, Ellison would meander over from Centre Court Tennis Club in Riverside and watch the East Providence boys team practice. While the Townies didn’t have a roster filled with All-Staters, the way the boys played was still significantly different than the way she was playing.

Ellison made up her mind about her tennis future before her freshman year. She didn’t think playing for the girls team, which competed in Division III, would offer the type of competition she wanted.

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She spoke with then-athletic director Gregg Amore about playing tennis for the boys team. Interscholastic League rules on the matter are simple. Girls may play boys sports but cannot play the same sport in the same academic year, which prevents girls from playing tennis in both the fall and spring.

Amore went through the proper channels to make sure Ellison was cleared to play as she decided to give a new sport a try, suiting up for the East Providence girls soccer team.

When spring arrived, Ellison participated in for tryouts. The players hadn’t seen in her action but had heard stories about her talents. During the ladder tournament, which is how a team determine its singles order, Ellison showed everyone she wasn’t there to just be a part of the team.

“When I found out a freshman was coming to take my spot, I thought it was going to be a guy and then she showed up,” East Providence No. 1 James McShane said. “Then it was like, ‘Oh, my God.’

“There were a lot of nerves in the challenge match that year but it was great to have.”

“She wanted to be a part of that specific team, and with those guys, it was a special year that season,” East Providence coach Slade Sharma said. “Her pursuit, the way she goes after things, the way she challenges herself, to see it as a coach, it’s rare air.

“I haven’t seen it like that — to go up against 17-, 18-year-old guys about to go to school as a 14-year-old girl — it’s as impressive as it gets.”

Freshman year wasn’t easy for Ellison. There were plenty of stares, snickers and looks when opposing players learned that Ellison was East Providence’s No. 2 singles player.

Sharma and Ellison prepared for those moments all season. Sharma told Ellison that every opponent she’d play would think she would be a pushover and the only thing she could do was ignore the noise and let her performance do the talking.

“Your job is to keep proving people wrong and keep showing that it doesn’t matter what gender I am,” Sharma would tell Ellison. “ 'I’m a tennis player and I’m a great tennis player and I’m going to show you that.' ”

Ellison’s season was no different than any other freshman playing singles for the first time. There were good matches, bad matches and everything in between, and every one of them provided an education.

“The guys play different than the girls,” Ellison said. “There’s more slices. Guys tend to hit with more spin, so I had to adapt.”

Sophomore year brought some new challenges. In the fall, Ellison was a member of East Providence’s girls volleyball junior varsity team, and in the winter, she joined the Townies’ swim team.

When tennis season arrived, the super sophomore wasn’t surprising anyone. She was no longer a girl playing tennis. She was a Townie, just like the rest of her teammates.

“She pushes me hard every day and makes sure I don’t slack at all,” McShane said. “With her technique, she knows everything and she’s on my [butt] 24/7.

“It’s a blessing to have her and get to play with her every day.”

Ellison isn’t surprising opponents, either. Most of Division II is well-aware of her talents, so those stares and smirks during lineup introductions are things of the past.

“I’ve noticed that a lot of the guys are really respectful, which is nice,” Ellison said. “Last year was a bit harder because I was a freshman just starting out.”

This season has gone well. Ellison’s individual record is hovering near .500 and East Providence is in the thick of the Division II race. Eight of the Townies' 10 starters are seniors, so winning a title would be a perfect way go to out.

It would also be the perfect sendoff for Ellison.

After back-to-back Division III runner-up finishes, the East Providence girls team is moving up to Division II in the fall. That means better competition, and for Ellison, it’s a perfect time to challenge herself again.

She’ll be one of the best players, if not the best, in Division II and will have an opportunity to prove, during the regular season and the girls state singles tournament, that she’s one of the best in the state while trying to lead East Providence to a championship.

“It’s kind of funny. In D-III, we went to two straight championship matches and that was without her,” Sharma said. “If that’s the case and she plays for the girls in the fall, she’ll make us an instant contender, even in D-II.”

It makes this season a little emotional. While she has two years of high school left, and wants to help the boys team next spring as a team manager, Ellison sounds like most of her teammates would talking about their final season for the Townies. “Honestly, my friends are the seniors, so it feels like [I’m graduating], but I’m not going anywhere,” Ellison said. “I have to watch them go off and be adults and live life.”

“It was a little awkward at times,” McShane said. “But now she’s my little sister.”

For the rest of the season, Ellison will continue to play with passion. It has never been about her being a girl on a boys team or trying to make some larger societal point about female athletics. It’s been about trying to be the best you can be, which is exactly what this group of Townies has been attempting as well, giving Ellison a high school sports experience she’ll never forget.

“I love this team,” Ellison said. “These guys are awesome.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: East Providence's Abigail Ellison is winning points on boys tennis team