No. 16 Men's Tennis at No. 29 Rensselaer
Saturday, February 17| 5:30 p.m.
TriCity Fitness | Latham, N.Y.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson has a 2-2 record against Rensselaer in the career series in the past 25 years.
• The Beavers posted victories over the Engineers the last two seasons (5-4 in 2022, 6-3 in 2023) following a 7-2 Rensselaer triumph on October 8, 2016.

LAST MEETING
• No. 32 Babson erased a 2-1 deficit after doubles by winning five of six singles matches on the way to defeating 22nd-ranked Rensselaer, 6-3, inside the Kingsbury Club in Medfield, Mass.
• The Green and White turned the tide with four of its five singles wins coming in straight sets as Brooks Green '23M won No. 2, Kian Yazdi '23M was a winner at No. 4, Maxwell Conlin '23 registered a triumph at No. 5, and Weisman '23 won at No. 6. Luis Utrilla needed three sets for his victory at No. 3. The Beavers' lone point in doubles came at No. 1 where junior Brady Anderson and Utrilla cruised to an 8-2 win.
• The Rensselaer victories in doubles came from Igor Visnevskij and Abraham Yohannes at No. 2 and junior Bryce Burnham and senior Max Safanov at No. 3. The lone singles win for the Engineers came from junior Aiden Drover-Mattinen at No. 1.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 16 Babson (3-1) split its first two matches of the spring season on February 4, falling to Division I Bryant, 6-1, and defeating defending Commonwealth Coast Conference champion Nichols, 8-1, in Cumberland, R.I.
• Anderson went 3-0 on the day for the Beavers, taking both No. 1 singles matches and pairing up with junior Ole Lepsoe for a win at No. 1 doubles vs. Bryant. Graduate student Jonah Wilson and sophomore Martin Mejia were double winners against Nichols, Wilson registering victories at No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles with graduate student Andrew Watson, and Mejia posting wins at No. 3 singles and No 3 doubles with senior Jose Gonzalez. First-years Mattias Harrell and Brandon Reznik also won at No. 2 doubles and classmate Caymus Choi and junior Eshan Mukherjee posted wins at No. 4 and 6 singles, respectively.
• Including last fall's tournament play and a pair of dual match victories, Wilson (10-4) leads the team in singles victories, followed by Gonzalez (8-6) and Watson (6-2). Mejia and first-year Logan Back went 4-4 in doubles in tournament play.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• No 29 Rensselaer (0-0) is opening the spring season in Saturday's match against Babson after successful tournament play last fall. The Engineers went 14-7 last year, captured the Liberty League championship, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• In last fall's tournament action, first-year Tsubi Okada advanced to the singles final of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Regionals to advance to the ITA Cup, and Drover-Mattinen and sophomore Andy Zhu advanced to the regional doubles final and also competed in the ITA Cup.
• Drover-Mattinen won a pair of matches in the NCAA singles championship last spring to advance to the quarterfinals and earn All-America honors.

ITA RANKINGS
• In addition to the national rankings for both teams, each team appears in the ITA Division III rankings.
• Okada is ranked 14th and Zhu is 41st for Rensselaer in the singles rankings that were announced on November 15, 2023, and Wilson of Babson is ranked 24th.
• Drover-Mattinen and Zhu are also ranked ninth in Division III doubles for the Engineers.

POLL POSITION
• Babson was picked to finish first when the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) released its annual preseason coaches' poll.
• The Beavers received five of eight first-place votes to finish atop the poll for the first time, while two-time defending champion and 21st-ranked MIT received three first-place votes to come in second.

NATIONALLY RANKED FOES
• Saturday's match is the first of five straight Babson encounters and nine matches this spring against teams that are in the ITA Top 40 Team Rankings.
• The Beavers will face No. 4 Bowdoin, No. 3 Tufts, No. 30 Redlands and No. 12 Gustavus Adolphus in their next four matches, and will take on No. 21 MIT, No. 20 Brandeis, No. 37 Mary Washington and No. 21 Hobart in April.

UP NEXT
• The Beavers travel to No. 4 Bowdoin and No. 3 Tufts the first weekend in March, facing the Polar Bears on March 2 in Brunswick, Maine, and the Jumbos on March 3 in Medford, Mass.