COLONIA, NJ – With 14 points and two first-place votes apiece, two-time defending ECC Champion Queens and St. Thomas Aquinas have tied for the top spot in the 2025 East Coast Conference Men's Tennis Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's four head coaches and announced on Monday morning. The last five ECC Championship Finals have featured the Knights and the Spartans, with QC bringing home four titles, including the last two. St. Thomas Aquinas sophomore Seth Newman (Cambridge, England) was the unanimous selection for ECC Preseason Player of the Year.
Queens won six of the last seven ECC Championship titles and has reached the conference finals in each of its last 10 seasons. The Knights have also dominated regular season conference play, with just two losses since 2018.
QC takes a hit with the graduation of reigning ECC Player of the Year Roni Rikkonen, who led the Knights to a 17-7 overall record (5-1 ECC) and the seventh NCAA Championship Tournament Finals Round in program history last spring.
Returning All-Conference selection Lucas Foix Sotos tops the four Knights included in November's Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Collegiate Tennis Rankings for the NCAA East Region, coming in at No. 7. Alexis Martin Gibiard (No. 9), All-Conference returner Tim Andersson (No. 18), and Samuel Linck (No. 20) are expected to add to the top of the singles roster while Foix Sotos and Andersson enter the spring as QC's top-ranked doubles pair (No. 6).
ECC Preseason Player of the Year Newman will lead St. Thomas Aquinas into the 2025 season as the Spartans look for their first ECC Championship trophy since 2022. Newman enters his sophomore spring as the ITA's No. 1 ranked player in the region and No. 12 ranked player across all of NCAA Division II. Newman won the Fall 2024 ITA Singles Championship and the Fall 2023 ITA Doubles Championship and went 5-1 in both singles and doubles regular season conference play last year en route to ECC Rookie of the Year honors and a spot on the All-Conference Team.
Don Vinz Lominoque sits No. 2 in the region and No. 46 across all of Division II while Victor Tauson (No. 4), All-Conference returner and 2023 ECC Rookie of the Year Ondrej Sramek (No. 8), and Nathan Yacar (No. 20) also rank in the ITA's Top 20 regional rankings. Three pairs were ranked in the Top 10 for doubles in Sramek/Lorenzo Meschini, Lominique/Nagamitsu Kuroda, and Yacar/Tauson. St. Thomas Aquians went 14-7 overall (4-2 ECC) last year.
After finishing 11-10 overall (3-3 ECC), District of Columbia earned eight points to finish third in the preseason poll. The Firebirds reached the ECC Championship Final three consecutive times from 2011-13.
2023 ECC Co-Player of the Year Louis Mangeon (No. 10), All-Conference returner Louka Queguiner (No. 13), and rookie Sebastiano Palma (No. 16) land in the ITA's Top 20 regional rankings while Mangeon/L. Queguiner (No. 3) and Palma/Elouan Queguiner (No. 8) are Top 10 regional contenders for doubles.
Returning the core of Alex Lumanog, Juan Alvarez, Lucas Garcia, Rohan Chitanand, Lasse Mergens, and Jayven Williamson and adding Vondin Henderson, Daemen rounds out the poll with four points. The Wildcats went 5-15 overall (0-6 ECC).
St. Thomas Aquinas and Daemen open up this weekend, as the Spartans host Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday, February 1 and the Wildcats host Walsh on Sunday, February 2. Queens hosts Hofstra next Friday, February 7 in its season opener while District of Columbia will see its first action of the spring at Howard on Saturday, February 15.
2025 ECC Men's Tennis Preseason Poll
T-1. Queens - 14 points (2 first-place votes)
T-1. St. Thomas Aquinas - 14 points (2 first-place votes)
3. District of Columbia - 8 points
4. Daemen - 4 points
2025 ECC Preseason Player of the Year
Seth Newman, So., St. Thomas Aquinas