HAVERFORD, Pa. – After putting together one of its strongest fall seasons in recent history, the Haverford College men's tennis team will open its spring dual schedule this Saturday at No. 37 Stevens. The Fords, led by first-year head coach Brendan Kincaid, bring back talented players at the top of the lineup and will look new contributors to solidify the rest of the slots as they prepare for another successful season.
Returning to the top of the lineup is Josh Moskovitz. Moskovitz is coming off a fall season during which he advanced to the quarterfinals of both singles and doubles at the ITA Atlantic South Regional Championships. He is already a three-time All-Centennial Conference performer in both singles and doubles, earning first-team accolades twice in singles (2017, 18) and once in doubles (2018). He is already a three-time Centennial Conference Player of the Week during his career and will enter his senior campaign as the No. 14-ranked singles player in the region. Moskovitz has played No. 1 singles and doubles during each of the past two years and looks to once again lead the team this spring.
Kevin Yan paired up with Moskovitz for that run to the quarterfinals of the ITA Regional this fall in doubles and enters his junior season as a three-time All-Centennial Conference performer who was named rookie of the year in 2017. Yan was a first-team All-CC singles selection in his first year before garnering second-team accolades in both singles and doubles last year. Yan played No. 2 singles and doubles last year. Nick Sweeney joins the aforementioned Fords as one of the team's three tri-captains. Sweeney has contributed 11 wins in singles and 17 more in doubles throughout his career and looks to be aiming even higher in 2019 as he already made the Flight A doubles finals with Arnav Patodia during the ITA fall championship season. Now a sophomore, Patodia was a regular in the Fords' doubles lineup as a first-year where he went 6-0 during the 2017 spring season.
Pranav Krishnan is the third returning member of the Fords' lineup from last year as he held down No. 6 singles. Krishnan is off to a 5-1 start in doubles after the fall season as he paired with first-year George Jiang for that successful run. Jiang has already earned Centennial Conference Player of the Week honors during the fall season and also picked up a win in the championship singles draw at the ITA regional. Patrick Kley and Jackson Trevor join the Fords as fellow first-years along with Jiang. Both players will look to make their collegiate debuts during the spring season.
In addition to the graduation losses of four-year starters, three members of the team's junior class (David Kong, Raja Arul, and Rob Kresch) are taking advantage of Haverford College's Study Abroad program this year. While that group will be reaping all of the benefits of being a Division III student-athlete, their absence will leave the opportunity for several other members of the team to step into more prominent roles. Seniors Kevin Xu and Andrew Linden, along with junior Adam Branovan will all have that chance this year as returning upperclassmen. Sophomores Matthew Danielson, Scott Kozarsky, and Jun Mo will also be looking to add to the team in their second year with the Fords.
Men's tennis went 11-7 overall, including a 7-2 record in Centennial Conference matches last spring during Sean Sloane's final season as head coach before he announced his retirement after 21 years with the Haverford College men's tennis program. The Fords finished third in the regular standings last spring and fell to Swarthmore during the semifinals of the Centennial Conference Tournament. Haverford has made the Centennial Conference Tournament 12 times in the 13-year history of the CC playoffs. The Fords made it to at least the semifinal round in each of those appearances, including three trips to the conference championship match (2007, 08, 13).
A challenging non-conference slate for the 2019 season includes a trip to California during the College's week of Spring Break where the team will play five matches in four days. Haverford's home opener is set for Saturday, March 9 against NYU and will be one of eight matches the Fords will play at home this spring.