WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis men's tennis head coach Ben Lamanna has been earned Division III's top honor for the 2019 season, as he has been named the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III National Coach of the Year.
Lamanna, along with assistant coach Christo Schultz, coached the Brandeis men as high as #9 in the ITA's Division III national poll, tying the program's high-water mark set in 1989. The Judges finished with a 16-4 record, one win shy of the most in program history. They finished second in the University Athletic Association, their highest since the conference went to a head-to-head tournament and just missed out on the program's second-ever NCAA berth. Three of the Judges' four losses came at the hands of teams that made the national semifinals (national champions Emory, Claremont-Mudd Scripps and Middlebury), with a win over the fourth semifinalist (Chicago). Nine of their 16 wins came against nationally-ranked opponents.
"This honor for Ben is so well deserved," said interim director of athletics Jeff Ward. "He's an amazing coach in every sense of the word. He doesn't just develop tennis players. He develops people."
Lamanna coached four All-UAA selections, including the league Rookie of the Year in Adam Tzeng of Eagle, Idaho. Tzeng was also a second-team All-UAA selection at #3 singles and #2 doubles, along with fellow rookie Jeffrey Chen of Northfield, Illinois. Chen also earned second-team All-UAA singles honors at #4. For the second year in a row, Brandeis's #1 doubles team of junior David Aizenberg of Highland Park, Illinois, and sophomore Anupreeth Coramutla of Monroe Township, New Jersey, were first-team All-Association honorees. Aizenberg claimed a spot as a first-team All-UAA member at #1 singles, while Coramutla was a second-team All-UAA selection at #2 singles.
Lamanna previously swept the UAA Men's and Women's Coaching Staff of the Year awards, having guided the #8-ranked women the Round of 16 in their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance. Lamanna is the first UAA coach to win both men's and women's honors in the same season.
Lamanna is Brandeis's first National Coach of the Year since 2016, when women's soccer coach Denise Dallamora was honored.