No. 25 Men's Tennis at Bryant | 12 p.m.
vs. Nichols | 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, February 2 | Fore Court Racquet & Fitness Club | Cumberland, R.I.

WHAT TO KNOW
• After playing a pair of dual matches and participating in three tournaments back in September and October, the Babson men's tennis team kicks off its spring season on Sunday afternoon in Cumberland, R.I.

LOOKING BACK ON LAST YEAR
• The Beavers won 10 of 11 matches last spring before falling to MIT in the NEWMAC Tournament final to finish the season with a 14-9 overall record and a 6-1 conference mark.
• Babson went 8-0 in home matches while eight of its nine losses were to nationally-ranked opponents with the other setback to Division I Bryant.
• The Green and White wound up 31st in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Division III poll after finishing a then-program-best 18th in the final ITA Division III poll in 2023.

SERIES HISTORY
vs. Bryant
• Babson is 2-3 all-time against the Bulldogs in a series that dates back to the 1994-95 campaign.
• In the only two matches in the past 20 years, Bryant captured a 4-3 victory on February 22, 2020 and a 6-1 decision on February 4, 2024.
vs. Nichols
• Babson is 6-1 all-time against the Bison in a series that dates back to 2011. 
• The Beavers have won the last five matches between the teams, which includes last year's 8-1 triumph on February 4.

LAST MEETING
vs. Bryant
• Junior Brady Anderson registered a 6-3, 7-5 victory at No. 1 singles and teamed with classmate Ole Lepsoe for a 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles for Babson in a 6-1 Bryant triumph last February.
• Sophomore Otakar Ungerman, Diego Serra Sparrow '24, senior Jean-Christophe Baril, Diego Trejo '24, and sophomore Daniel Baquero produced singles wins for the Bulldogs, who earned the doubles point with wins by Baril and Baquero at No. 2 and Trejo and Myles Peterson at No. 3.
vs. Nichols
• Jonah Wilson M'24 and junior Martin Mejia were winners in both singles and doubles to lead the Beavers to an 8-1 victory over Nichols last February.
• Anderson, Caymus Choi and Eshan Mukherjee were singles winners for the Green and White, while Andrew Watson M'24, Brandon Reznik, sophomore Mattias Harrell and Jose Gonzalez '24 were on winning doubles teams.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 25 Babson (2-0, 2-0 NEWMAC) wrapped up the fall portion of its schedule with a 6-1 victory over Emerson and a 7-0 whitewash over Clark in a pair of conference matches on October 18.
• First-years Edward Wang and Sebastian Mendoza, Harrell and junior Alexander Weber won singles matches against both NEWMAC foes, and Anderson, Harrell and Weber were all on winning doubles teams in both encounters.
• Wang had an impressive start to his rookie year, going 11-0 in singles in the fall, including 9-0 in tournament play and 2-0 at number one singles in the dual matches.
• Mendoza was 5-4 in singles in the fall and Harrell was 5-2 for the Beavers. Wang and junior transfer Alexander Merson were 5-3 in doubles and the Anderson/Lepsoe tandem was 5-4.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
• Bryant (0-1), which will host Youngstown State on Friday and Brandeis on Saturday before meeting Babson on Sunday, opened its spring season with a 4-1 setback at Harvard last Sunday.
• The Bulldogs earned the doubles point against the Crimson with wins by Ungerman and graduate student Sepehr Raissi at No. 1 (6-4) and the duo of Peterson and Baquero at No. 3 (7-5).
• First-year Miguel Machado went 9-2 in tournament play last fall and leads the team in singles victories, while Baquero was 6-6 in singles and Baril was 4-5 for the Bulldogs.
• Bryant went 12-7 last year and fell to sixth-seeded New Orleans in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament.

SCOUTING THE BISON
• Nichols (1-2) is making its spring debut on Sunday after defeating Clark (4-3) and falling to Amherst (7-0) and Connecticut College (4-3) in dual matches last fall.
• Senior Kerem Subasi went 4-1 in singles in the fall (3-1 at No. 3) to lead the team in victories. Senior Oscar Junyent, first-year Felipe Gonzalez and graduate student Caio Dieckmann all finished the fall with 3-1 singles records.
• Gonzalez and junior Leon Zeis were the top doubles team with a 2-1 record, including 2-0 at No. 1.
• The Bison, which finished 14-8 overall and 7-0 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference last year, captured the CCC Tournament title and a first-round victory over Farmingdale State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to Bowdoin in the second round.

WHAT'S NEW FOR 2024-25
• The ITA and NCAA have adopted a new 7-point scoring format for dual matches this season that includes just one point for doubles. 
• All doubles matches will be played to 6 points with a 7-point tiebreaker at 6-all. 
• Singles matches will continue to be the best two-out-of-three sets. 

ITA RANKINGS
• Babson, which finished 31st in last year's Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) final Division III rankings, enters the spring season ranked 25th in this year's rankings.
• The Beavers will face eight teams in the ITA Top 40 this spring -- No. 18 Rensselaer, No. 3 Tufts, No. 5 Middlebury, No. 33 Salisbury, No. 32 Grinnell, No. 22 North Carolina Wesleyan, No. 34 Chapman and No. 23 MIT.
• Under the direction of Michael Kopelman, who is now in his seventh season as head coach, the Beavers have appeared in the final national poll of the season in five consecutive seasons.

UP NEXT
• Babson will face ranked teams in its next four matches, beginning against No. 18 Rensselaer on February 14 at the Longfellow Tennis Club in Wellesley, adjacent to the Babson campus.