The St. John's University men's tennis team had a rough start early on in 2004, but bounced back and earned the fourth seed in the 2004 BIG EAST Tournament, finishing the season with a 12-11 overall record and a 5-1 mark in BIG EAST regular season action.

The Red Storm opened the season with losses to Illinois State, Notre Dame and nationally ranked Old Dominion, before ending the streak with a 6-1 win over Concordia. St. John's, however, continued to struggle, falling to Columbia, New Orleans and Louisiana Lafayette, before picking up a 5-2 win over Southern Mississippi.

On March 24, St. John's traveled to the Boise State Tournament where they went 2-2. After falling to 2-8 with losses to New Mexico State and Sacramento State in the first two matches, the Red Storm picked up wins over Idaho and Cal Poly. The two wins were the first showings of the new Red Storm squad that would take to the courts in the following weeks and win eight-straight matches and five-straight BIG EAST competitions.

St. John's opened the 2004 home slate with a 5-2 win against Boston College. After taking the doubles point, David Nylen, Aurelio Di Zazzo and Nick Stocker won at the No. 2, 3 and 4 singles spots, respectively, to claim the match. In their next match, the Red Storm won at Rutgers, 5-2. Once again, St. John's won two-of-three in doubles for the first point and the early lead. Nylen continued his success at the No. 2 spot, winning easily (6-2, 6-1), while Stocker, Morgan Bauer and Claudio Holim closed out the fourth, fifth and sixth spots for the Red Storm win.

The Red Storm continued to run over their BIG EAST opponents with a 7-0 sweep over both Connecticut and Georgetown, improving their record to an impressive 4-1 in the conference. A 5-0 win against Fairleigh Dickinson and a 7-0 win over NYU put St. John's at 10-8 overall and extended their win streak to eight matches in two and a half weeks.

The streak, however, was snapped in St. John's next outing, a 4-3 loss to Manhattan. After a grueling back-and-fourth battle, the Jaspers won with a victory in the sixth singles spot after six hours of tennis. The Red Storm didn't waiver for long, and came back to easily beat Villanova, 6-1, in the second match of the day on April 18. The No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams picked up wins to give St. John's an early 1-0 lead. The Red Storm won the first four singles points, as victories by Louis Desmarteaux, Nylen, Holim and Bauer and a win in the sixth spot by Boris Chipourkha gave St. John's the 6-1 win in their final regular season conference match of the year. A win over Stony Brook to end the regular season put St. John's at 11-9 overall and, combined with their 5-1 conference record, earned them the fourth seed in the 2004 BIG EAST Tournament in Coral Gables Fla.

Nylen and Halim combined for an 8-2 win at No. 2 doubles, and Bauer and Goldberg won 8-6 at No. 3, giving St. John's the early lead in the quarterfinal match against Rutgers. Desmarteaux, Nylen and Halim won in straight-sets to clinch the match and push St. John's through to the BIG EAST semifinals. Against nationally ranked Virginia Tech in the semifinals, the Red Storm fell 4-0, before dropping the consolation match to Miami, 4-0. For his efforts, Desmarteaux was named to the 2004 BIG EAST All-Tournament Team.

Nylen led St. John's with a 17-4 singles record. He dominated at the No. 2 spot, boasting a 16-1 record. Desmarteaux went 16-7 overall with an 13-6 record at No. 1, while Halim finished at 13-8 overall. Stocker and Di Zazzo, who battled through injuries for much of the season, went 5-8 and 8-7, respectfully.