West Babylon, N.Y. – Queens College earned all four first place votes to finish first in the East Coast Conference men’s tennis preseason poll released on Monday afternoon. The league’s head coaches also selected St. Thomas Aquinas junior Lennart Lehmann (Dusseldorf, Germany) as the Preseason Player of the Year.
Queens, who has not lost a conference regular season match since the 2018 season, won a third straight ECC Regular Season Championship a year ago. Eight of the ten players from last year’s roster are back for another go around, including All-Conference honorees Mariano Bibiloni, Moritz Borges, Kareem Rashad, and Philipp Uhde.
St. Thomas Aquinas, the defending ECC Champion, comes in at No. 2 in the poll with 12 points. The Spartans have reason for optimism as well with five players back, including three All-Conference selections in Lehmann, Odysseas Papaioannou, and Ludovico Truffelli.
Lehmann earns the preseason nod for Player of the Year after another strong season in 2021-22. After being named the ECC Rookie and Player of the Year during the 2021 campaign, Lehmann avoided the sophomore slump in 2022. He finished last season with a 20-6 singles record, including a perfect 5-0 mark in ECC play.
District of Columbia and Daemen round out the poll by tying for third place.
2023 ECC Men's Tennis Preseason Poll
| Team | Pts. | Last Year's Record |
| 1. Queens (4) | 16 | 17-9 (6-0 ECC) |
| 2. St. Thomas Aquinas | 12 | 18-8 (4-2 ECC) |
| T3. Daemen | 6 | 3-17 (0-6 ECC) |
| T3. Dist. Columbia | 6 | 5-12 (2-4 ECC) |
( ) - first place votes
Preseason Player of the Year: Lennart Lehmann, Jr., St. Thomas Aquinas
