ROME, Ga.—Sophomores Sebastian Mendoza (Weston, Fla.) and Edward Wang (Burr Ridge, Ill.) opened the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Cup with a straight-set victory in the first round of the doubles draw on Thursday afternoon at the Rome Tennis Center. 

Mendoza and Wang, who are the first men's players in program history to qualify for the ITA Cup, defeated Akshay Garapati and Jack Rivkin of Carleton (Minn.) University, 6-4, 6-3, to advance to the quarterfinals. They will now face the fourth-seeded Pomona-Pitzer College duo of Drew Goldman and Jayanth Mallampati on Friday at 1:30 p.m. 

The first ITA New England doubles champions in Babson history, Mendoza and Wang improved to 14-0 on the season with Thursday's victory.