FOREST, Va. – The Guilford College men's tennis team looks to make it a full two decades of consecutive postseason action as they gear up for spring play of their 2025-26 season after getting selected eighth in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Preseason Coaches' Poll, as announced by the conference offices on Thursday afternoon.

"I am glad to have an extremely talented group of guys for this spring conference season," Men's Tennis Interim Head Coach, Mark Lapierre said. "I am looking forward to working with this mature and team-oriented group of guys.  Their work ethic on and off the court will suit and be a great match to our challenges this year.  This diverse group of guys enjoys being pushed to their fullest potential.  They are all incredibly hard working and devoted to improving their on-court presence. Follow our season and share in cheering on each and every Guilford College victory!"

For Guilford, everything begins and ends with one of the ODAC's very best individual players, Andres Mercedes (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) as he enters the fourth year of his vaunted Quakers career, aiming to become just the second GC men's tennis player to ever be a four-time All-ODAC pick, and perhaps even make a run at the league's Player of the Year honor. Superlatives do not properly portray the dominance of the three-time All-ODAC Second Team selection in both singles and doubles play after checking in with the program's best-ever winning percentage in singles play, at .944, and second-best overall, at .861 a season ago and starting strong this year with top-flight tournament victory at the Methodist Fall Invitational back in the fall. Beyond Mercedes, the Quakers have a few questions, as fellow senior Emmanuel Oye (Clayton, N.C.) followed him in the singles lineup and paired with him in doubles play during GC's lone fall match after seeing a majority of his action in the sixth flight a season ago. The senior tandem is ahead of a pair of freshmen who should play a major role in how much success GC enjoys this season, as George Hardie (Liberty, N.C.) projects to play out of the third flight then Alex Brown (Burlington, N.C.) in the fourth. Turner Johnson (Oak Ridge, N.C.) hopes to see success now as an upperclassman and was matched with Hardie in the second flight of doubles in the fall before dual-sport athletes Ahmaad Abdul-Haqq (Greensboro, N.C.) and Chris Kelley (Lexington, N.C.) round out the Guilford singles lineup as well as their doubles scorebook with one of them alongside Brown.

The Quakers saw the open to spring slate pushed back at least a week after their match with North Carolina Central University got postponed due to court conditions. They will try again on Saturday, February 14^th against Piedmont at 3:30 PM. GC will open ODAC action on March 14^th at 2:00 PM, taking on Bridgewater College on the road prior to coming home to battle Randolph College on Wednesday, March 18^th in their first home conference clash beginning at 3:00 PM.
 

Rk.	School (First-Place Votes)	Pts.
1.	Washington & Lee University (9)	99 pts.
2.	Averett University (1)	88 pts.
3.	Virginia Wesleyan University	78 pts.
4.	Shenandoah University	75pts.
5.	Randolph College (1)	67pts.
6.	University of Lynchburg	52pts.
7.	Hampden-Sydney College	47pts.
8.	Guilford College	36 pts.
9.	Roanoke College	34 pts.
10.	Bridgewater College	17 pts.
11.	Randolph-Macon College	12 pts.

#GoQuakes