LANCASTER, Pa. – The Centennial Conference on Thursday afternoon released its preseason coaches poll for men's tennis and Haverford College earned the No. 4 spot behind league favorite Johns Hopkins University.
The Fords, 11-7 last year, garnered 60 points in the coaches' poll trailing third-place Franklin & Marshall College by only four points. Hopkins topped the list with 81 points and nine, of 10, first-place votes, outdistancing preseason runner-up Swarthmore College's 70 points and one first-place tally.
Haverford has qualified for the postseason Centennial tournament seven of the past eight seasons. Four times the Fords made it into the semifinal round and the other three times, including the 2013 tournament, they played in the championship final.
Atlantic South Regional rankings of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) have Haverford eighth, ahead of ninth-place Swarthmore and behind F&M (seventh) and Hopkins (second). The national ITA rankings last compiled in October 2013 have the Blue Jays at No. 10. The spring's first national rankings will be released on March 4 and the initial Atlantic South rankings are expected on March 27.
The spring schedule for the Fords opens March 5 with a home match against Stevens Institute of Technology followed by a pair of matches over spring break in Puerto Rico.