ITA Atlantic South Region Rankings
HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team debuted at No. 12 in the first Intercollegiate Tennis Association's (ITA) Atlantic South Region team rankings of the spring. In addition to Haverford's team ranking, senior co-captain Josh Moskovitz moved up to No. 11 in the ITA's Atlantic South Regional singles rankings. Moskovitz had been ranked 14th in the region after his fall season where he advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITA Regional Championships.
Haverford has started the spring season with a 3-5 overall record. However, three of those defeats have come to teams that were nationally-ranked at the time of the match while the other two losses have come to sides that moved into the national rankings during the latest release. The spring season has already seen many thrilling matches as the Fords defeated NYU to snap a recent losing skid against the Violets while later defeating Wheaton (Mass.) and Chapman while the team was in California.
Several of the Fords' tough defeats have come in matches where one or two tiebreaks going in Haverford's favor would have flipped the final team result. Those matches included hard-fought contests against TCNJ and Stevens. Haverford was defeated 5-4 by TCNJ and the Lions are now up to No. 28 in the national rankings after they were 30th nationally when the teams met.
The Fords are one of four teams in the Centennial Conference that are regionally-ranked. Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore are Nos. 6 and 7, respectively, in the regional poll. Those two teams are ranked 25th and 32nd in the national rankings. In addition to Haverford at No. 12, Franklin & Marshall checked in at No. 20 during this latest release.
On the individual stage, Josh Moskovitz is 4-4 during the early portion of his spring season in singles, but included in his victories was a straight-set win against No. 50 Vishal Walia during Haverford's season-opening win against NYU. That match ultimately helped earn Moskovitz Centennial Conference Player of the Week honors.
Moskovitz is the second-highest ranked player in the Centennial Conference in the regional singles rankings. Only Johns Hopkins' Vishnu Joshi, a player Moskovitz defeated in the tight match last year, is ranked higher in the region among his conference peers. Swarthmore's Jiung Jung (No. 12), Johns Hopkins' Scott Thygesen (No. 20) & Austin Gu (No. 23), and Dickinson's Leonid Sorkin (No. 21) are also ranked in singles.
Moskovitz will likely have a regionally-ranked opponent on his hands once again this weekend as the Fords begin Centennial Conference play with Dickinson at home this Saturday. That match is scheduled to get underway at 12 p.m.