HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team was picked for a third place finish in the Centennial Conference by a vote of the CC head coaches. The Fords collected 59 voting points in the poll. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams.
Defending Centennial Conference Champion Johns Hopkins was the unanimous pick to repeat in the preseason poll while Swarthmore garnered the remaining first-place vote to finish in second. Coming in behind the Fords were Franklin & Marshall (54 points) and Dickinson (49 points) to round out the top five.
The Fords will have to replace Centennial Conference Player of the Year Josh Moskovitz '19 and Nick Sweeney '19 in their starting lineup, but they still have plenty of returning talent. Senior Kevin Yan played No. 2 singles last year and enters his final season as a three-time All-CC performer in singles, including first-team honors during his rookie of the year campaign in 2016. Yan was also a two-time All-CC selection in double, earning first-team accolades alongside Moskovitz last year. Pranav Krishnan and George Jiang combined for second-team All-CC honors in doubles last year while Jiang earned those same honors in singles. Arnav Patodia also returns from last year's lineup where he played No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles.
In addition to the incoming class of first-years, Haverford will also be bolstered by the return of three seniors who were studying abroad during the past academic year. David Kong was an All-CC performer in both singles and doubles when he last saw action on the courts for Haverford in 2018, leading the team in wins that season with a 16-3 mark in singles. Raja Arul and Kong combined to form a second-team All-CC pairing during their rookie campaign together while Rob Kresch has posted a 13-4 record in singles for Haverford while in the starting lineup.
Men's tennis opens its 2020 season on Friday, February 28 at No. 32 TCNJ. Originally scheduled to be a home contest, the Lions will now host that non-conference matchup at 2 p.m. Centennial Conference play begins on Saturday, March 21 at Gettysburg while the Centennial Conference Tournament is slated to begin on April 29 with the semifinals and championship match to be held on May 2 and 3.
Haverford went 13-8 during Centennial Conference Coach of the Year Brendan Kincaid's first year leading the Fords last spring. That record included a 7-2 mark in Centennial Conference play as the Fords earned the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament. Haverford has made the Centennial Conference Tournament during each of the past nine seasons and 13 of the last 14 overall.