Box Score CLAREMONT, Calif.— Junior
Alexander Merson (Palisades Park, N.J.) and first-year
Sabastian Mendoza (Weston, Fla.) registered victories in both singles and doubles as No. 18 Babson College stunned No. 6 Middlebury College, 5-2, in a battle of top-20 men's tennis teams Sunday afternoon in the first match of the California trip at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps' Biszantz Family Tennis Center.
The Beavers posted their second victory over a top-20 team in three outings this spring, improving to 6-1 overall, while the Panthers suffered their first loss of the season and dip to 4-1.
Senior
Wesley Zhang (Staten Island, N.Y.) and first-year
Edward Wang (Burr Ridge, Ill.) posted key singles victories for the Beavers. Senior
Brady Anderson (Rochester, N.Y.) paired with Mendoza and classmate
Ole Lepsoe (Oslo, Norway) teamed with Merson to give the Green and White victories in doubles.
Middlebury salvaged a pair of singles wins by junior Julian Wu (Tenafly, N.J.) and senior Noah Laber (Ventura, Calif.) for its two points in the loss.
The teams split the first two doubles matches as Lepsoe/Merson defeated Middlebury senior Neel Epstein (New York, N.Y.) and Laber at No. 1, 6-4, and Wu/sophomore Noah Lewis (Gaithersburg, Md.) handed Wang/Zhang a 6-1 verdict at No. 3. Anderson and Mendoza took a 4-1 lead for Babson at No. 2 and held a 5-4 advantage before junior Hugh Hentschel (Rye, N.Y.) and sophomore Thehan Wijemanne (Colombo, Sri Lanka) rallied for a 6-5 lead. The Babson duo won the next game to force a tiebreaker and survived a back-and-forth breaker to pull out a 7-5 victory to produce the team point for the Beavers.
Babson gained an advantage in the match in singles, taking the first set in all six matches. Zhang defeated Hentschel 6-2, 6-4 at No. 5; Mendoza took care of Wijemanne at No. 6, 7-5, 6-4; and Wang clinched the team victory for the Green and White with a 7-5, 6-2 triumph at No. 3 over Epstein, who is ranked 10th in Division III in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings.
Merson added another point to the Babson total with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Lewis at No. 5. Middlebury captured the last two matches with Wu coming back from a set down to defeat Lepsoe at No. 1, 1-6, 6-1, 6-0; and Laber, who is ranked 23rd in Division III, edged Anderson at No. 2, 6-7, 6-3, 1-0 (10-5).
The Beavers will be back in action on Monday with matches against No. 32 Salisbury at 12 p.m. (ET) and Glendale CC at 4:30 p.m. (ET). The Panthers look to bounce back on Tuesday, traveling to No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps for an 8:00 p.m. ET start.
MATCH NOTES
• Babson is 1-2 all-time against Middlebury after winning what was the first match between the two programs since 2018.
• The victory over No. 6 Middlebury is the highest ranked opponent Babson has defeated in program history, surpassing the triumph over No. 12 Gustavus Adolphus on March 15 last year.
• The Beavers are 2-1 against top-20 teams this spring, having previously defeated No. 18 Rensselaer (4-3) and taking a setback to No. 3 Tufts (7-0).
• The Green and White will play four more top-40 teams this week in California, No. 32 Salisbury on Monday, No. 33 Grinnell on Tuesday, No. 24 North Carolina Wesleyan on Thursday and No. 32 Chapman on Friday.
