The Midwest Conference released its 2026 Men's Tennis Preseason Coaches Poll on Friday and the Foresters were second on the list.
Voting is done by the MWC head men's tennis coaches. Each coach votes for the other six schools in the league in order of predicted finish. Points are assigned in reverse order of voting (six points for first, five for second, etc.). Coaches may not vote for their own teams.
With 31 points, the Foresters trailed only defending conference champion Grinnell College (36) in the poll. Grinnell received six of the seven first-place votes and Lake Forest the other. Cornell College (26 points) and Illinois College (19) were also in the top four.
The Foresters return six of their top seven players from a season ago, including All-MWC selections George Ciuca, Bernardo Aguiar, and Felipe Moraes. The 2024-25 team was 10-10 overall, second in the conference standings at 5-1 in league play, and the runner-up in the MWC Team Tournament.
Under sixth-year head coach Scot Reinhart, Lake Forest played in three events in the fall and will open the spring at Illinois Institute of Technology this Saturday. The team will travel to Hilton Head, South Carolina, during Spring Break, begin league play against Monmouth College and Illinois College on April 4, and complete its six-match conference schedule just two weeks later. The top four teams in the standings will compete in the MWC Tournament at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 24 and the MWC Individual Tournaments will be played the next two days at the same location.
The Foresters qualified for their 10th consecutive MWC Tournament last spring and played in the championship match for the ninth time during that span.
| PLACE |
TEAM (First Place Votes) |
POINTS |
| 1 |
Grinnell College (6) |
36 |
| 2 |
Lake Forest College (1) |
31 |
| 3 |
Cornell College |
26 |
| 4 |
Illinois College |
19 |
| 5 |
Lawrence University |
17 |
| 6 |
Ripon College |
12 |
| 7 |
Monmouth College |
6 |
