Men's Tennis 2020 Spring Schedule
HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team has announced a challenging 2020 spring schedule that will get underway on Friday, February 28 and feature matchups with six teams that finished in the top 40 of the national rankings a season ago, along with many more regionally-ranked foes. The Fords' slate features eight home matches and also includes a trip to California for the second straight season.
The Fords start their spring season at home against one of those nationally-ranked foes as the Fords look to avenge a 5-4 defeat from last season against TCNJ (Feb. 28). The Lions finished 2019 ranked 32nd in the national rankings. A day later, Haverford heads to Stevens to battle last year's 31st ranked squad on Saturday, February 29.
Haverford is scheduled to play five matches in California, bookended by battles with RPI (Mar. 10) and Caltech (Mar. 14). RPI was ranked 34th at the end of last season while Caltech finished 2019 as the 24th-ranked team in the nation. Both of those matches will be the first-ever meetings in program history. Haverford will also play Wheaton (Mass.) (Mar. 12), Vassar (Mar. 13), and Chapman (Mar. 13) during its week on the west coast.
When the Fords return back east, Centennial Conference play awaits as the Fords open up conference play on Saturday, March 21 at Gettysburg. Haverford will also battle CC foes Dickinson (Mar. 28), Washington College (Mar. 31), McDaniel (Apr. 11), and Ursinus (Apr. 14) on the road.
That same day as the Gettysburg match, Haverford will have a split squad outing as Goucher will come to Haverford for a home dual. Playing its first match against Goucher since 1992, that match will see head coach Brendan Kincaid's former squad battle against his current Fords. Haverford will also host Salisbury (Apr. 4) and Wilkes (Apr. 11) in non-conference action while the Fords will also battle CC foes on those dates.
The Centennial Conference home slate should feature plenty of exciting action with no bigger matches than home duals against Johns Hopkins (Apr. 18) and Swarthmore (Apr. 24) to close the regular season. Both those squads finished the year inside the national top 40 as the Blue Jays have won 13 straight Centennial Conference Championships. Haverford will also welcome Centennial Conference playoff team Franklin & Marshall (Apr. 4) to the Bramall Courts before hosting Muhlenberg (Apr. 8) the following week.
Men's tennis posted a 13-8 (7-2 CC) record in Kincaid's first season leading the Fords as he earned Centennial Conference Coach of the Year recognition. Haverford earned the No. 3 seed into the Centennial Conference Tournament as the Fords have now qualified for the conference tournament 13 times in 14 seasons.
The Fords return four of their top six players in the lineup, but have to replace Centennial Conference Player of the Year Josh Moskovitz. George Jiang and Kevin Yan both earned All-CC honors in singles and doubles a season ago while Pranav Krishnan was an all-conference performer in doubles. Haverford's lineup will also be bolstered by the return of former All-CC performers David Kong and Raja Arul who were both all-conference picks prior to spending their junior seasons studying abroad. Fellow seniors Arnav Patodia (No. 6 singles/No. 3 doubles in 2019) and Rob Kresch (abroad last spring) also have plenty of experience to help form a roster that features six seniors on the 16-man squad.