PHILADELPHIA – The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) has announced its annual regional awards, and the University of Pennsylvania men's tennis Head Coach Rich Bonfiglio was named Northeast Regional Coach of the Year.
 
Bonfiglio led Penn to its second-ever NCAA appearance in his fourth year as head coach after an extraordinary 2025-26 season.
 
He began the season by leading senior Manfredi Graziani and junior Aaron Sandler to become the program's first-ever All-Americans after reaching the NCAA Doubles Semifinals in the fall.
 
The two teammates would go on to finish the spring with an undefeated 20-0 record (32-3 overall) while being named unanimous First-team All-Ivy and ITA All-Americans in doubles, finishing the season #27 in the ITA doubles rankings (highest #2).
 
Graziani also had tremendous success in singles, reaching a career-high #39 in the ITA singles rankings and finishing the season ranked #40, the highest final ranking in program history.

Bonfiglio also helped sophomore Shaurya Bharadwaj develop into a Second-team All-Ivy selection in singles, ranked as high as #70 in the ITA singles rankings.

Bharadwaj and doubles partner Vojtech Vales also had a tremendous season, climbing as high as #63 in the ITA doubles rankings. 
 
The Quakers finished the season with an 18-10 overall record and a 4-3 conference record, good for third in the Ivy League standings.
 
Other team highlights included defeating Harvard and Yale twice, while also taking down Princeton in the Ivy League opener.
 
This was the first time that Penn has accomplished this feat all in the same season in over 20 years.  
 
"This is a team award. The same way the guys are the ones winning the matches, they are also the ones that allow us to win awards as a coaching staff. I'm proud of the work they are putting in day in and day out, and I'm hoping we can continue to build on our success from these past few seasons to continue to raise the standard of Penn tennis," said Bonfiglio.