Full Centennial Conference Awards Release
HAVERFORD, Pa. - The No. 28 Haverford College men's tennis team was well represented in the release of the Centennial Conference postseason awards on Friday as Haverford's first-year head Coach Eric Spangler was named the Centennial Conference Coach of the Year, while first year Andreas Wingert was named the Conference's Rookie of the Year, Haverford's first since Kevin Yan earned the award in 2017. Wingert joins George Jiang in earning first-team All-Centennial Conference honors while the doubles pairing of Jiang and Stefan Johnson was named to the second team.
Spangler paced Haverford to its highest national ranking in program history, as the Fords entered the Centennial Conference tournament as the No. 28 team in the nation. The Fords also took down No. 12 Johns Hopkins earlier this season, handing the Blue Jays their first loss in Centennial Conference play in exactly six years, snapping Johns Hopkins' 41-match win streak in CC play with the triumph. The Fords finished with a 13-6 overall record and a 7-1 mark in Centennial Conference play.
Spangler is the third Head Coach of the Haverford program to earn the award from the Centennial, and 2022 also represents the third consecutive season in which Haverford competed and that postseason awards were handed out that a Haverford coach has won the award, joining Sean Sloane in 2018 and Brendan Kincaid in 2019.
Wingert, of Hummelstown, Pa. earned Rookie of the Year honors with a 10-6 record in dual match season, including a 6-0 run through Centennial Conference play. That unblemished mark included the clinching singles match win over Johns Hopkins as Wingert was 9-6 overall at the third singles position in 2022. Wingert was also 1-0 in doubles, teaming up with Max Beckwith in his lone appearance in pairs action.
Jiang compiled a 7-9 record for the Fords during the dual match season, including a 5-2 mark in Centennial Conference play in singles. The Tucson, Ariz. product was named Centennial Conference Player of the Week on April 26 after a pair of regionally ranked wins against opponents from Washington College and Christopher Newport.
Jiang has ballooned up the ITA rankings to end his final season with the Fords, as of the May 5 release he ranks as the number 10 singles player in the Atlantic South, while Haverford's doubles pairing of Jiang and Stefan Johnson is the 16th-ranked pairing in the region. Jiang was recently named the third alternate to the NCAA Singles Championship on Wednesday. Jiang was also a second-team selection in both singles and doubles in 2019.
Johnson earned a spot on the second doubles team thanks to a stellar first year campaign. The rookie from Florence, Mass. went 4-2 with Jiang at the first doubles pairing throughout the 2022 season and finished 8-8 overall in doubles, with two wins over regionally ranked opponents during that stretch to open up his career.