Nichols College Athletics

Paul Brower begins his 17th season as the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at Nichols College in 2020-21.

During Brower’s tenure at Nichols, the men’s program has captured eight Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championships (2012-19) while the women have snared the conference championship on five occasions (2010; 2016-19). Since the 2009-10 campaign, the men have received four CCC Player of the Year awards, three Rookie of the Year awards, 28 CCC First Team nods, 26 CCC Second Team selections, 16 CCC Third Team honors, 22 CCC Honorable Mention picks, and 15 CCC All-Academic honors. The women, meanwhile, have produced five CCC Rookies of the Year, seven CCC Players of the Year, 31 CCC First Team picks, 23 CCC Second Team selections, 16 CCC Third Team picks, 13 CCC Honorable Mention picks, and 45 CCC Academic All-Conference selections.

The men’s program has won their NCAA First Round contest six times, scoring wins over Marywood in 2012, Colby-Sawyer in 2013 & 2016, Ramapo in 2015, UMass Boston in 2017, and Baruch in 2018. In the last 11 seasons (excluding the shortened 2019-20 campaign), the team has never posted fewer than 15 wins and reached the 20-win mark three times. The women – who have won at least 12 matches in 10 of the last 11 seasons, dating back to 2009-10 – secured the first-ever win by a Nichols College women’s team in an NCAA Tournament when they defeated Ithaca in 2017. They have since scored First Round wins over Wilkes (5-4) in 2018 and Colby-Sawyer (5-4) in 2019.

The women’s tennis program captured their fourth-straight CCC Championship in 2019 by knocking off Endicott College in the title match for the fourth year in a row. The men’s quest for a ninth-straight-consecutive conference championship was hauled by the COVID-19 virus which forced the cancellation of the spring season.

In 2018-19, the women cruised through the conference schedule before knocking off Roger Williams (5-0) and Endicott (5-3) in the CCC Semifinal and Championship rounds, respectively. The men won 15 matches and rolled past Gordon and Western New England in the conference playoffs, winning both matches by identical 5-0 scores.

The 2017-18 women’s tennis team posted the second-highest winning percentage in program history (.870) and a perfect 8-0 conference record en route to their second-straight conference championship, a 5-1 win over Endicott. The men, meanwhile, won 20 matches for the third time in five years, won all eight CCC regular season matches, and defeated Eastern Nazarene for the CCC crown. Brower shared CCC Coach of the Year honors on the men’s side.

The 2016-17 women’s squad posted a 17-4 mark – including a perfect 8-0 record in conference play – as they advanced to their sixth CCC Championship match in the last seven seasons. They entered the match 0-4 all-time against Endicott in the conference championship match, but broke through and rolled to a 5-0 win. The Bison then downed the Bombers 5-3 in the NCAA Tournament before falling to Tufts in the Second Round.

The Bison men’s tennis squad, meanwhile, rolled to a 19-4 record (7-1 CCC) in 2016-17 and earned its sixth-straight conference crown by downing Eastern Nazarene 5-3 in the championship match. The win marked the third-consecutive season the Bison won the conference championship on the road. They later scored a 5-1 win over the Beacons in the NCAA Tournament before being eliminated by Bowdoin for the second-consecutive season.

Since the fall of 2006, Brower has seen nine of his student-athletes receive CCC Rookie of the Year honors: Molly McGuire in 2006, Jillian McQuiggan in 2009, Anny Dyakiv in 2010, Justin DeLuca in 2010, Lindsay Benoit in 2011, Brandon Roode in 2012, Joan Castillo in 2014, Alanna Judd in 2015, and Amare Settiwongse in 2016. Additionally, five received Player of the Year honors (Dyakiv in 2010, 2011 & 2012, DeLuca in 2010 & 2014, Brandon Roode in 2012 & 2015, Settiwongse in 2016-19, and Blake Norton in 2019), while four student-athletes were named CCC Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year (McGuire in 2009, Carella in 2012, Dyakiv in 2013, Megan Nathanson in 2019).

In 2012-13, Dyakiv was named to the both the Capital One Academic District 1 NCAA Division III First Team and the Capital One Academic All-America Division III Third Team, this coming one year after Stephan Carella was named to the CoSIDA/Captial One Academic All-District At-Large Team and the Capital One Academic All-America Division III At-Large First Team.

Brower is a six-time CCC Coach of the Year, earning the honor three times on the women’s side (2009-10; 2011-12; 2012-13) and three with the men’s program (2013-14; 2017-18; 2018-19). He is a 2003 graduate of Worcester State University who received his MSPC from Clark (MA) University in 2009. While an undergrad at Worcester State, he was a four-year member of the tennis team. His career highlights include an 11-2 singles record during the 2001 season. He served as team captain and first singles player his junior and senior seasons.

Brower – who also serves as the college’s Director of Admissions – is originally from West Brookfield, Mass., and now resides in Auburn, Mass. He has gained a wealth of experience coaching at various tennis camps around New England.

Career Record at Nichols