No. 29 Men's Tennis at No. 21 MIT
Sunday, April 28 | 12 p.m. 
DuPont Tennis Courts | Cambridge, Mass. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    No. 29 Babson and No. 1 MIT will meet in the NEWMAC Tournament final on Sunday afternoon with the winner punching its ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson owns just three wins in 61 all-time matches against MIT in a series that dates back to the 1983-84 campaign. 
•    The Beavers have dropped two straight matches against the Engineers going back to last year's NEWMAC final. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Babson and MIT will meet for the 20th time in the conference playoffs and 16th time in the championship match going back to 1997 when both were members of the Constitution Athletic Conference (CAC).
•    Each of the previous 19 postseason matches have been won by the Engineers, which includes seven consecutive championship matchups from 2013-19 and last year's 5-3 result. 
•    The Green and White is seeking its first NEWMAC Tournament title since 2021, while MIT has won claimed 23 conference titles over the last 24 seasons.

LAST MEETING
•    MIT won close matches at number one and two doubles and got singles victories from Kailas Kahler, Ryan Xiao and Siddharth Marathe to defeat Babson, 6-3, on April 10 in Cambridge, Mass. 
•    Grant Gallagher and Daniel Papacica beat graduate student Andrew Watson and first-year Caymus Choi 8-6 at first doubles and Sundeep Chakladar and Joseph Li recorded an 8-6 win over junior Ole Lepsoe and first-year Kerem Ozlale at number two for the Engineers, who were up 3-0 going to singles. 
•    Lepsoe, senior Jose Gonzalez and junior Wesley Zhang all recorded singles victories for the Beavers. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    No. 29 Babson (14-8) has won seven consecutive matches after defeating third-seeded Coast Guard, 5-1, in Saturday's semifinals.
•    Leading 2-1 after doubles, the Beavers got singles victories from Ozlale at number two, Watson at number five and Gonzalez at number six to oust the Bears. 
•    Graduate student Jonah Wilson (14-5) is 7-2 in dual matches, including 5-1 at number one singles, while Ozlale (16-7) is 12-3 in dual matches, including a combined 9-2 in the top two flights. Lepsoe (9-3) has all of his wins in the top three singles flights, Watson (11-4) is 4-2 at number four, and Gonzalez (16-11) shares the team lead in victories, including a 4-3 mark at number five.
•    Lepsoe and first-year Logan Back and are 2-1 at number one doubles, Wilson and Watson are 4-2 overall and 2-2 at number two, and Zhang and Choi are 3-0 at number three doubles. 

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
•    No. 21 MIT (17-3) has won eight straight matches after cruising past fourth-seeded Clark, 5-0, in Saturday's conference semifinals. 
•    After sweeping doubles, the Engineers got a 6-2, 6-0 win at number five singles from Marathe and a 6-1, 6-0 victory at number six from Shrish Choudhary to advance to its 24th straight NEWMAC final. 
•    Kahler is 10-4 at number one singles, Xiao is 11-5 overall and 6-4 at number three and Adam Sun (6-1) has won two of three matches at number four. Marathe is 13-3 in all matches and Choudhary is 14-5 with a pair of wins at number six. 
•    Papacica and Grant Gallagher have gone 7-7 at number one doubles, Chakladar and Li (10-1) are 5-1 at number two and the duo of Sun and Kahler is 8-1 overall and 2-0 at number three doubles. 

WHAT'S AT STAKE
•    In addition to claiming a NEWMAC title, the winner will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. 
•    With Babson ranked seventh in Region I, one spot behind MIT, neither team is likely to an at-large bid to the Division III championship.

BEAVERS SWEEP NEWMAC WEEKLY HONORS
•    Lepsoe was named NEWMAC Singles Athlete of the Week and Lepsoe and Back were tabbed as Doubles Team of the Week on Monday afternoon.
•    Lepsoe was honored as the top weekly singles player for the second straight week and a member of the doubles team in the week for the third time this season. Back is a first-time selection of a NEWMAC weekly honor.

NEW LOOK LINEUP
•    After falling to MIT in last year's final after beating the Engineers in the regular season, only one player that was part of last year's match is likely to be in Sunday's lineup for the Beavers. 
•    With the loss of junior Brady Anderson to injury, Zhang is the lone Babson player with conference championship match experience. 
•    Anderson was a straight-set winner at number three singles, while Zhang paired with Brooks Green M'23 in an 8-4 loss at number two doubles last year. 

TRENDS TO WATCH
•    During its current seven-match winning streak, the Beavers have led after doubles six times. The lone exception was rallying from a 2-1 deficit by winning all six singles matches to beat then-No. 18 Mary Washington 7-2 on April 14. 
•    The Green and White is a perfect 7-0 at number two, five and six singles, and 6-0 at number three singles during its winning streak. 
•    Babson is 3-5 against nationally-raked foes this spring, which includes victories over then-No. 12 Gustavus Adolphus on March 15 and No. 37 Hobart last Sunday in addition to the win over Mary Washington.