2026 Men’s Tennis Season Preview
1/13/2026
The Brown men’s tennis team will begin its spring 2026 season against Merrimack (Jan. 17) and Fordham (Jan. 19) inside the Pizzitola Sports Center.
The 2026 spring season will be the first full season under head coach Mike Fried ‘91. Fried was named the 14th head coach in program history on June 26, 2025. Fried returns to Brown after 13 seasons as head coach of the men’s and women’s tennis programs at Wesleyan.
The Schedule
Brown will open its 2026 season with seven-straight home matches against Merrimack (Jan. 17), Fordham (Jan. 19), Holy Cross and Marist (Feb. 1), Boston College (Feb. 6), and Buffalo and Quinnipiac (Feb. 8).
Overall, the Bears will play 18 home matches this season. Last season, Brown matched a program record with 16 victories at home.
Ivy League play will begin against Yale (Mar. 28), the 2026 regular season will conclude at Princeton (Apr. 19).
Familiar Faces
Brown returns six players to its 2026 roster: Zander Bravo, Noah Hernandez, Alex Koong, James Lian, Toby Luo, and Lukas Phimvongsa.
Hernandez and Phimvongsa return after being named Honorable Mention All-Ivy Doubles last season. The pairing was named the No. 10 pairing in the New England Region by the ITA.
Lian returns for his junior season after earning a 2025 team-best 20 singles victories, while Bravo picked up nine singles victories last season.
Koong returns after being named Academic All-Ivy last season, and Luo returns for his second stint with the Bears after finishing 8-6 in singles action last season.
New Faces
Brown welcomed five newcomers ahead of the 2026 season in Theo Murphy, Cole Oberg, Iva Sodan, Elliot Wasserman, and Robert Yang.
Murphy, Oberg, Wasserman, and Yang all competed for Brown in the 2025 fall season.
The Bears also welcomed assistant coaches Tristan Kaye and Emil Reinberg. Read about the new assistant coaches here.
Fall Recap
The Bears opened their fall slate with 18 victories across three days at the Dartmouth Invitational. All four freshmen collected their first collegiate victories on day one of the event while Wasserman and Yang won all three singles matches over the weekend.
Brown also competed at the Harvard Invitational in the fall. Wasserman and Koong each won two singles matches across the event.
The Bears rounded out their fall slate with appearances at the ITA New England Regionals and the Ivy League ITA Qualifiers.
