Last fall, senior Manfredi Graziani and junior Aaron Sandler pushed Penn men’s tennis to never-before-seen heights and became the first doubles pairing to make the NCAA Final Four in program history.
Although the Quakers weren’t well-represented during the NCAA Doubles Championships, Graziani and Sandler managed to defy the odds. The duo went all the way to the Final Four, capturing All-American honors. With a 6-7, 6-4 loss to Ohio State’s Nikita Filin and Brandon Carpico, the duo ended their season as the Quakers’ all-time best doubles team.
The duo was the first in Quakers history to make it past the Round of 16 after upsetting No. 4 seed Cosme Rolland De Ravel and Albert Pedrico Kravtsov from TCU, which made them Penn’s first doubles team to earn All-American honors.
From tiebreaker wins to straight-set sweeps, Graziani and Sandler fought their way through multiple top-100 opponents to end the season ranked eighth in the nation. In March, the duo pushed themselves even further, briefly occupying the No. 2 spot in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.
The duo earned the only unanimous All-Ivy Doubles First Team selection of the season, with Graziani also being named to the first team in singles and Sandler being named Academic All-Ivy. The College Sports Communicators also honored both Graziani and Sandler by naming them to the Academic All-District Team.
At the ITA All-American Championships, the pair claimed the consolation title after battling through a competitive draw. Along the way, the Quaker duo bested two top-10 doubles teams.
While the duo will not return next year due to Graziani graduating, their legacy will live on in the record books of the Red and Blue.
Honorable mentions: seniors and freestyle specialists Sydney Bergstrom and Anna Moehn (women’s swimming and diving); senior guard/forward Ethan Roberts and junior forward TJ Power (men’s basketball)
Check out the rest of the end-of-year awards for the 2025-26 season here.
Staff reporter Luke Petersen covers national politics and can be reached at petersen@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies philosophy, politics, and economics. Follow him on X @LukePetersen06.
