LANCASTER, Pa. – Fifteen-time defending champion Johns Hopkins has been selected to repeat once again in the 2023 Centennial Conference Men's Tennis Preseason Poll. The Blue Jays received all eight possible first-place votes and totaled 64 points to earn top billing in the vote among CC head coaches. 

Swarthmore, which has finished second in the CC each of the last eight seasons in which its competed, nabbed the runner-up spot in the voting with 55 points and the other first-place nod. Haverford (48), Washington College (45) Franklin & Marshall (34), and Gettysburg (27) were also projected playoff teams in third through sixth, respectively. 

Ursinus was projected to place seventh with 24 points, followed by Dickinson (19) and Muhlenberg (8). 

F&M will be the first CC team to open up the spring campaign this weekend with a non-conference matchup against Washington and Lee. The majority of CC teams will open up play in late February or early March. The thick of conference play beings in late March through late April. The five-team CC Tournament is set for April 25-27-29. 

2023 Schedule | 2022 Results | 2022 All-Centennial Team 

In the 29-year history of Centennial Conference men's tennis, only two teams have hoisted the championship trophy - Washington College and Johns Hopkins. Beginning in 1994, Washington College claimed 11-straight CC titles from 1994-2004, before JHU broke the Shoremen's winning streak with its first crown in 2005. The Shoremen reclaimed the title in 2006, but the Blue Jays have remained on top of the CC ever since with 15 consecutive championships dating back to 2007. 

JHU continued its CC winning streak in 2022, defeating Swarthmore 5-3 in the championship match. The Blue Jays then went on to represent the Centennial in the NCAA Tournament, where they fell to N.C. Wesleyan 5-4 in the second round. 

In the NCAA singles championship, JHU's Vishnu Joshi advanced deep into the tournament for the second-straight season, reaching the championship match before falling to Middlebury's Stan Morris 7-5, 5-7, 2-6 to finish as the national runner-up. Joshi became just the second player in Centennial Conference history to advance to the national championship singles matches, joining former Washington College national champion Damian Polla (national champ in 1995 and 1997) in that elite club. Joshi collected his fourth career All-America singles honor in the process 

A plethora of talented players are back on Centennial courts this spring, with 22 All-CC performers returning. Swarthmore leads the way with seven returning all-conference performers, followed by Johns Hopkins (5), Gettysburg (3), Haverford (2), Washington College (2) and Dickinson, F&M and Ursinus each with one apiece. Eight of the nine CC teams have at least one all-star on the roster this spring. 

Thomas Yu of JHU leads the list as the reigning CC Player of the Year. Yu was also the 2021 Rookie of the Year and has earned first team singles and first team doubles honors in each of his two campaigns for Hopkins. Also back for the Blue Jays as All-CC performers are Daniel Ardila, Andrew Tran, James Yu, and Rohan Reddy. 

Swarthmore welcomes back Kevin Jiang, Phil Rehwinkel, Josiah Myers-Lipton, Graham Hadesman, Max Pogorelov, Rushil Patel, and Charley Force are all back for the Garnet after securing all-conference accolades last spring. 

The Gettysburg trio of Mikey Fellman, Alex Kagan and Michael Zayneh return as all-stars for the Bullets, while Haverford's Andreas Wingert and Stefan Johnson and Washington College's Karl Hoegstedt and Landon Strober are also back for their respective teams. Wingert was the CC Rookie of the Year in 2022. 

Other All-CC returners include Dickinson's Romano De Capiro, F&M's Isaac Rockower, and Ursinus' Lars Jespersen. 

2023 Centennial Conference Men's Tennis Preseason Poll