Box Score WELLESLEY, Mass.—Senior
Wesley Zhang (Staten Island, N.Y.), junior
Alexander Merson (Palisades Park, N.J.) and sophomore
Louis Bourn (Geneva, Switzerland) all recorded victories in both singles and
doubles to help 25th-ranked Babson College defeat No. 18 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 4-3, in non-conference men's tennis action on Friday afternoon inside the Longfellow Tennis Club.
With the win, Babson improves to 5-0 on the year while Rensselaer slips to 1-1.
The Beavers dropped the opening decision of the match at number one doubles but got a 6-3 win from Zhang and first-year
Edward Wang (Burr Ridge, Ill.) at number two and a 6-3 triumph from Merson and Bourn at number three to claim the doubles point.
The Engineers responded by winning three of the first four singles matches to go in front 3-1. Senior Aiden Drover-Mattinen (Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Newfoundland) rallied for a 1-6, 7-5, 6-0 victory over Babson senior
Ole Lepsoe (Oslo, Norway) at number one, first-year Archit Yemula (Basking Ridge, N.J.) topped Wang 6-3, 7-6 at number two and junior Andy Zhu (Richmond, British Columbia) recorded his second win of the day by topping Beavers' first-year
Sebastian Mendoza (Weston, Fla.) 6-2, 6-2 at number four.
Merson collected the first singles point for the Green and White rallying past RPI sophomore Tsubi Okada (Honolulu, Hawaii) for a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 triumph at number three. Bourn followed with a 6-4, 6-2 win over junior Tasmay Shah (Chandler, Ariz.) at number five and Zhang posted a 6-4, 6-2 result versus first-year Quoc-Uy Vo (Irvine, Calif.) at number six to claim the decisive point in the match.
Babson returns to action on March 2 when it hosts Tufts at 5 p.m., while Rensselaer visits No. 15 MIT on Saturday at 1 p.m.
MATCH NOTES
• The Beavers are now 3-3 all-time against the Engineers and have won three of the last four matches between the teams.
• Babson is 5-0 for the first time since winning seven consecutive matches during the pandemic-shortened 2021 campaign.
• The Beavers are 4-8 against nationally-ranked opponents going back to the start of last season.
