No. 12 Men's Tennis at Skidmore
Saturday, February 21 | 9:30 a.m.
McCaffery-Wagman Tennis and Wellness Center / Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
No. 12 Men's Tennis at No. 20 Rensselaer
Saturday, February 21 | 2:00 p.m.
TriCity Fitness / Latham, N.Y.
WHAT TO KNOW
• After a pair of dual match victories and strong showings in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) tournaments last fall, the Babson men's tennis team kicks off its spring season on Saturday with a pair of matches in eastern New York.
LOOKING BACK ON LAST YEAR
• The Beavers enjoyed their most successful season in program history, winning a program-best 22 dual matches (22-3), capturing the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) regular season and tournament championships, and advancing to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals for the first time in program history.
• Babson went 8-1 in home matches and 8-3 against nationally-ranked opponents with the only losses to No. 3 Tufts, No. 32 Chapman and No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the NCAA national quarterfinals.
• The Green and White earned the NEWMAC Athlete, Rookie and Coaching Staff of the Year, the ITA Division III Assistant Coach of the Year, a College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-America, and seven ITA All-America Scholars.
SERIES HISTORY
vs. Skidmore
• Babson is 0-1 all-time against the Thoroughbreds in a series that dates back to the 2005-06 campaign.
• The only match in the series was a 7-0 Skidmore victory in Waterville, Maine, back on March 11, 2006.
vs. Rensselaer
• Babson has a 3-3 record against Rensselaer over the past 25 years.
• The Beavers have won three of the last four over the Engineers with victories in 2022, 2023 and 2025.
LAST MEETING
vs. Skidmore
• The Beavers were blanked by both Colby and Skidmore on March 11, 2006, on the way to a 6-18 dual match record in 2005-06.
vs. Rensselaer
•
Wesley Zhang '25, senior
Alexander Merson and junior
Louis Bourn all recorded victories in both singles and doubles to help 25th-ranked Babson defeat No. 18 Rensselaer, 4-3, on February 14, 2025, inside the Longfellow Tennis Club in Wellesley.
• The Beavers got wins from Zhang and sophomore
Edward Wang at No. 2 and Merson and Bourn at No. 3 to claim the doubles point. The Engineers earned wins in three of the first four singles matches by Aiden Drover-Mattinen '25 at No. 1, sophomore Archit Yemula at No. 2, and senior Andy Zhu at No. 4 but the Green and White produced wins by Merson at No. 3, Bourn at No. 5, and Zhang at No. 6 to secure the team decision.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 12 Babson (2-0, 1-0 NEWMAC) posted dual match victories over Wesleyan (4-3) and Salve Regina (7-0) in the fall season while competing in four tournaments. The highlights include sophomores
Sebastian Mendoza and Wang capturing the ITA New England doubles championship and advancing to the ITA Cup semifinals.
• Merson posted an 8-1 record in singles in the fall to lead the Beavers, while first-year
Dylan O'Connell-DeCerchio was 7-1, classmate
Sourish Gadhi was 6-3, and Wang was 5-2. First-year
Maxim Zlobinsky (4-2), Mendoza (4-1) and sophomore
Mason Nguyen (4-0) all had four singles wins for the Green and White.
• Mendoza and Wang produced an impressive 15-1 record in doubles in the fall, while Merson and first-year
Rishi Batlanki were 6-2 and Bourn and Zlobinsky were 5-1.
SCOUTING THE THOROUGHBREDS
• Skidmore (0-0, 0-0 LL), which will host SUNY Oneonta on Friday to open its dual match season, competed in three tournaments in the fall, including hosting the ITA Northeast Regionals in October. First-year Ege Topbas led the Thoroughbreds, advancing to the singles semifinal round.
• Five players reached ITA regional quarterfinal rounds. Junior Fletcher King reached the quarters in singles and doubles with senior Nika Mori, while juniors Yuval Goodman and Harrison Gradin were also in the doubles quarters.
• The Thoroughbreds finished last season with an 11-9 dual match record, 5-3 in the Liberty League, and were knocked out of the conference tournament in the semifinals by No. 10 Rensselaer, 4-0.
SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• Rensselaer (1-0, 1-0 LL) defeated Bard (7-0) in a Liberty League match in its only dual match of the fall, while also competing at the ITA Northeast Regional at Skidmore. First-year Gustave Viennet and sophomore Quoc-Uy Vo each advanced into the Round of 16 in the main singles draw to lead the Engineers.
• Seven players finished with 3-0 records in singles in fall play, including Thompson Brown, Cade Collingwood, Brandon Felcher, Maxim Kauffman, Sid Srinivasan, Bennett Stout and Viennet. The tandems of Debarshi Sen/Collingwood (3-1), Andrew Nelson/Kauffman (3-0), and Ryan Tingley/Sebastian Boada (3-0) led the team in doubles victories.
• The Engineers finished 19-4 last year, 8-0 in the Liberty League, and captured the conference tournament title before falling to Tufts in the NCAA Tournament third round. The team also had competitors in the NCAA Singles and Doubles championships.
NEWMAC POLL
• Babson was picked to repeat as champions when the NEWMAC released its annual preseason coaches' poll on February 4.
• The Beavers received seven of the eight first-place votes to finish atop the voting. Last year's runner-up and 29th-ranked MIT receiver the remaining top vote to finish runner-up. Springfield and Clark rounded out the top half of the poll.
NATIONALLY RANKED FOES
• Saturday's match against No. 20 Rensselaer is the first of at least eight Babson encounters this spring against teams that are in the ITA Top 40 Team Rankings.
• The Beavers will face No. 27 NYU, No. 3 Tufts, No. 2 Chicago, No. 29 MIT, No. 25 Haverford, No. 10 Amherst, and No. 32 Brandeis in scheduled duals in the next two months, as well as possibly two more at the Stag-Hen Invitational in Claremont, Calif., during spring break in mid-March.
ITA TEAM RANKINGS
• Babson, which climbed as high as No. 11 in last year's ITA Division III regular season rankings on April 2 and April 9, finished 11th in the 2024-25 final rankings.
• The Beavers were ranked No. 12 in this year's preseason rankings in January, remained at No. 12 in the February 12 rankings.
• Under the direction of
Michael Kopelman, who is now in his eighth season as head coach, the Beavers have appeared in the final national poll of the season in six consecutive seasons.
ITA INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
• Babson was well represented when the ITA released its first national and regional singles and doubles rankings of the 2025-26 season in November.
• The top ranking for Babson came in doubles where Mendoza and Wang have ascended to No. 3 nationally in addition to claiming the top in the northeast region. Merson is ranked 17th nationally in singles, while Wang will enter the spring at No. 42. Merson (4th), Wang (12th) and Mendoza (19th) are all among the top 20 in singles in the northeast region as well.
UP NEXT
• The Beavers will return to the courts to host No. 27 NYU on February 28 at the Longfellow Health Club in Wellesley, adjacent to the Babson campus.
