Generals Command Top Rank in ODAC Men's Tennis Coaches Poll

FOREST, Va. --- We kick off the spring season of coaches' surveys with the 2023 ODAC Men's Tennis Coaches Poll. It is no surprise finding 12-time defending ODAC champion Washington and Lee University perched atop the table with 121 points powered by 11 first place votes.

Conference newcomer Averett University will be an immediate challenger to the Generals title aspirations with the Cougars opening their first ODAC men's tennis spring season slotted second with 111 markers and the remaining top nod. Virginia Wesleyan University, runner-up in each of the past two seasons, rounds out the top-three with 96 tallies.

In the following sections, we take a quick look back at last season and some results from the fall as we get a feel for what to expect for the upcoming men's tennis spring campaign.

2022 ODAC TOURNAMENT | BRACKET
ODAC teams enjoyed a returned to the standard conference tournament format with quarterfinal matches played at the #1-4 seeds during the midweek with a weekend final four. Last season's host for the last three league postseason matches was Washington and Lee.

• #1 Washington and Lee and #2 Virginia Wesleyan met in the championship match for the second time in as many seasons.
• The Generals defeated #8 Shenandoah University, 5-0, in the quarterfinals and used the same team score to earn a positive result over fourth-seeded Bridgewater College in the semifinals.
• The Marlins earned a 5-0 victory over #7 Roanoke College in the quarters and then posted a 5-1 team victory over third-seeded Hampden-Sydney College in the semis at W&L.
• In the championship contest, Washington and Lee won all three doubles matches and then saw Connor Coleman at #5 singles and James Kurani at #6 singles earn victories in their singles matches to give the Generals the necessary five points to clinch the ODAC title.
• The team triumph marked the 40th overall and 12th straight ODAC crown for the Generals.
• For VWU, the event marked the fifth overall appearance in an ODAC title match for the program, each coming since 2014.

2022 NCAA DIVISION III TOURNAMENT - TEAM

• Automatic qualifier Washington and Lee represented the ODAC in the Division III team tournament.
• The Generals met UMass Boston in the first round at host Williams College and posted a 5-0 victory over the Beacons.
• In round two, W&L squared off with nationally ninth-ranked Bowdoin College; the Bears earned a 5-2 result to close out the Generals season.

2021 NCAA DIVISION III TOURNAMENT - SINGLES/DOUBLES

• The ODAC did not have any single or doubles qualifiers

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING NATIONALLY ENTERING THE 2023 SPRING SEASON

• ITA National and Regional Rankings - Team: in the latest ITA team rankings (1/17/23), there are no ODAC teams listed in either the ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings sponsored by Tennis-Point national or Atlantic South Region polls.
• ITA National and Regional Rankings - Individual (11/17/22):
  • National Singles: No ODAC players feature among the top-50 ranked singles competitors in Division III.
  • National Doubles: In the ITA's listing of the top-25 tandems, W&L's Evan Brady and Evan Erb are slotted 11th.
  • Atlantic South Region Singles: A total of 20 players are ranked in the Atlantic South Region; W&L's Evan Erb is the only ranked player in the ODAC at #13.
  • Atlantic South Region Doubles: Ten doubles teams are ranked in the Atlantic South Region; W&L's Evan Brady and Evan Erb sit fourth, the lone ODAC pairing in the table.

RETURNING ALL-ODAC TALENT | 2022 ALL-ODAC MEN'S TENNIS AWARDS
Up from last season's returning contingent, 16 total players that earned All-ODAC recognition appear on conference rosters entering the spring campaign. Missing, however, is three-time ODAC Player of the Year Canon Secord from Bridgewater along with last year's ODAC/Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Alex Kulvivat from Randolph College.

Washington and Lee head coach David Detwiler, last season's ODAC Coach of the Year for a fifth time, welcomes back a league six All-ODAC standouts accounting for six singles honors and four doubles award winners. That includes last season's ODAC Rookie of the Year, Will Kistler.

   FIRST TEAM SINGLES

• #1 Singles: Evan Erb, W&L
• #2 Singles: Will Kistler, W&L
• #3 Singles: Evan Brady, W&L
• #4 Singles: Eli Hirshberg, W&L
• #5 Singles: Connor Coleman, W&L
• #6 Singles: James Kurani, W&L

   FIRST TEAM DOUBLES

• #1 Doubles: Felix Bevc, VWU -- partner Mitchell Perry graduated
• #1 Doubles: Eli Hirshberg/Will Kistler, W&L
• #2 Doubles: Evan Brady/Evan Erb, W&L
• #3 Doubles: Francis Cabaddu, VWU -- partner Henry West graduated

   SECOND TEAM SINGLES

• #1 Singles: Barrett Foster, H-SC
• #1 Singles: Levi Vigdorchik, LYN
• #3 Singles: Francis Cabaddu, VWU
• #4 Singles: Henry Singleton, H-SC
• #6 Singles: Cam Perry, VWU

   SECOND TEAM DOUBLES

• #1 Doubles: Matthew Leonard, BC -- partner Canon Secord graduated
• #1 Doubles: Barrett Foster, H-SC -- partner Tyler Brice graduated
• #2 Doubles: Max Doyle, R-MC -- partner Ryan Aud graduated
• #3 Doubles: Matthew Gordon/Noah Hughes, BC

WELCOME TO THE ODAC!

• Averett University became the 15th full-time member of the ODAC on July 1 and began its first season of ODAC men's tennis in the fall; the Cougars previously played out of the USA South Athletic Conference.
• Head coach Bert Poole, in his eighth season guiding the Cougars, features a squad that 14-5 overall and 6-1 in the USA South's East Division last season, placing second behind N.C. Wesleyan in that table.
• The 2022 Cougars won USA South first round (9-0 over LaGrange) and semifinal (5-1 over Methodist) matches before falling to top-seeded Methodist in the league final, 5-0.
• AU's 2022-23 squad is buoyed by the return of First Team All-USA South pick Jorge Figuroa. He also appeared on the East Division First Team, while returning teammate Rufus Nurminen was an East Division Second Team selection.

FROM THE FALL 2022
ODAC teams and student-athletes competed in several events during the fall campaign. Below a few highlights from those outings, offering a preview of what is to come during the spring slate.

• ITA Southeast Region Championships
  • W&L's Evan Erb was the top singles finisher at the Southeast Region Championships; he reached the quarterfinals of the championship draw, finishing 2-1 overall
  • In doubles play, Erb and Evan Brady finished as the runner up in the championship draw, qualifying for the ITA Cup in Rome, Ga.
  • Shenandoah's Dominick Suwak won the B3 Singles Draw championship with an 8-5 victory over Justin Minerva from Haverford.
  • Averett's duo of Martinho Goncalves and Rufus Nurminen finished as the runner-up in the B1 Doubles Draw to Johns Hopkins' pair Pranav Gadiraju and Allen Gong.
  • Averett's team of Philipp Bohnenkamp and Theodor Garmo won the B2 Doubles Draw championship over Salisbury's Chris Catan and Trey Cody, 8-7 (7-5); AU's team met Lynchburg's duo of Dan Hardy and Christian Zepeda in the semifinals.
• ITA Cup
  • W&L's Evan Brady and Evan Erb qualified as a doubles tandem; they dropped their first match to Tufts' Derin Acaroglu and Vuk Vuksanovic, but rallied in the consolation by posting a win over a duo RPI Aiden Drover-Mattinen and Andy Zhu following an advancement by withdrawal from their opponents at Emory University.
• Early Head-to-Head Matches | A few ODAC schools played early season head-to-head matches during the fall season; Roanoke went 1-1 in a pair of non-conference outings, while Washington and Lee topped Randolph-Macon in the lone conference contest from the fall.

THE SCHEDULE AND TOURNAMENT

• ODAC teams will compete in a 9-match conference regular season using an unbalanced schedule
• The start of play in the spring season is a bit sporadic with teams beginning matches on February 4 and picking up steam as the month draws on; all teams should be in action (barring weather) by the middle of the month.
• The ODAC Tournament is an eight-team standard bracket format competed over three rounds with a final-four format at one host site
  
  • Quarterfinals: Wednesday, April 26, at the #1-4 Seeds.
  • Semifinals: Saturday, April 29, at Virginia Wesleyan (later time slots).
  • Championship: Sunday, April 30, at Virginia Wesleyan (later time slot).
• The selections for the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Team Tournament will be announced on Monday, May 1; the draws for the singles and doubles tournaments will be announced later that week.

Listed below is the 2023 ODAC Men's Tennis Coaches Poll. For more information on ODAC men's tennis, visit the websites of any of the participating schools, or go to the ODAC's home on the Internet at www.odaconline.com.  Don't forget to become a fan of the ODAC on Facebook and follow @odacathletics on Twitter and Instagram.

2023 ODAC MEN'S TENNIS COACHES POLL