WEST BABYLON, N.Y. – With 14 points and two first-place votes apiece, Queens and St. Thomas Aquinas have tied for the top spot in the 2024 East Coast Conference Men’s Tennis Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league’s four head coaches and announced on Monday afternoon. Additionally, Queens senior Roni Rikkonen (Tampere, Finland) was tabbed the ECC Preseason Player of the Year.

Defending champion Queens has won five of the last six ECC Men’s Tennis Championship titles and has reached the finals in each of its last nine seasons. The Knights have dominated ECC regular-season action as well, dropping just one regular-season conference match since the 2018 season. Five players have been included in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Collegiate Tennis Rankings for the East Region, including Rikkonen (No. 1), Tim Andersson (No. 7), 2023 ECC Co-Player of the Year Cameron Henricy (No. 8), Francisco Gonzalez (No. 9), and Omar El Shehawey (No. 12). Additionally, El Shehawey/Lucas Foix Sotos enter the 2024 campaign ranked No. 8 in the region for doubles. 

Coming off of the 2023 ITA East Regional Singles Championship crown, Rikkonen is the only nationally-ranked player in the ECC, beginning his 2024 campaign at No. 20 across all of Division II. The Queens senior went 11-9 overall in singles play last year, with eight of those wins coming out of the No. 1 or No. 2 spot, and lit up doubles play at 20-7 overall (3-1 ECC). With wins at No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles, Rikkonen helped lead Queens to the 2023 ECC title. 

Defending champion St. Thomas Aquinas has reached the ECC final in each of the last four years, last winning the whole thing in 2022. The doubles pair of Seth Newman/Henry Ronnberg sit No. 1 in the region and No. 16 in the nation while 2022 Co-Rookie of the Year Ludovico Truffelli/Don Vinz Lominoque come in No. 5 in the region for doubles. 2023 Rookie of the Year Ondrej Sramek (No. 16), Newman (No. 18), and Truffelli (No. 19) are also recognized in the ITA’s individual top 20 regional rankings. 

District of Columbia earned seven points to finish third in the poll. Louka Queguiner (No. 10) and 2023 ECC Co-Player of the Year Louis Mangeon (No. 15) both land in the ITA’s top 15 regional rankings while Queguiner/Oskar Karos (No. 6) and Mangeon/Mauricio Corty Sosa (No. 10) are top 10 regional contenders for doubles. 

Returning the core of Rohan Chitanand, Zachary Laplante, Alex Lumanog, and Jayven Williamson, Daemen rounds out the poll with five points. 

2024 ECC Men’s Tennis Preseason Poll
T-1. Queens
14 points (2 first-place votes)
15-5 (5-1 ECC) in 2022-23

T-1. St. Thomas Aquinas
14 points (2 first-place votes)
17-3 (5-1 ECC) in 2022-23

3. District of Columbia
7 points
6-12 (1-4 ECC) in 2022-23

4. Daemen
5 points
5-18 (0-5 ECC) in 2022-23

2024 ECC Preseason Player of the Year
Roni Rikkonen, Sr., Queens

Season Openers
Saturday, February 3
St. Thomas Aquinas vs. FDU, 6:45 PM

Friday, February 16
District of Columbia at Howard, Time TBA

Saturday, February 17
Daemen at Bloomsburg, 5:00 PM

Friday, March 1
Queens vs. Hofstra, 12:00 PM