Box Score CLAREMONT, Calif.— Senior
Alexander Merson (Palisades Park, N.J.) and first-year
Maxim Zlobinsky (Greenvale, N.Y.) registered victories in both doubles and singles as No. 11 Babson College pulled off a 4-3 victory over No. 2 University of Chicago in a battle of top-10 men's tennis programs Saturday afternoon in the first round of the Stag-Hen Invitational hosted by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona Pitzer Colleges.
With the win, Babson won its third straight match to improve to 8-1 on the season while Chicago had a four-match winning streak snapped and dropped to 9-3.
Sophomores
Edward Wang (Burr Ridge, Ill.) and
Sebastian Mendoza (Weston, Fla.) also produced singles win for the Beavers, who battled back to win four of the six singles matches after dropping the doubles point.
The Maroons took a 1-0 lead with wins at numbers two and three doubles. Junior Alexander Ekstrand (Delray Beach, Fla.) and sophomore Gopal Koduri (Plano, Texas) downed Wang and Mendoza in the second flight, 6-1, and junior Markus Ekstrand (Delray Beach, Fla.) and sophomore Shrikeshav Murugesan (Edison, N.J.) edged senior
Martin Mejia (Cali, Colombia) and first-year
Max Lidman (Stockholm, Sweden) at number three, 7-5. The Beavers prevented a sweep as Merson and Zlobinsky defeated senior Jack Wong (East Brunswick, N.J.) and junior Robert Zhang (Sarasota, Fla.) at number one, 6-1.
The Beavers were winners in the top four singles flights to secure the team triumph, winning three of the four matches in three sets. Merson rallied to defeat Murugesan at number one, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3; Mendoza outlasted Alexander Ekstrand at number three, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6; and Zlobinsky came back to defeat junior Ajer Sher (Jericho, N.Y.) at number four, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. Wang was the only one to win in straight sets with a 7-6, 6-3 verdict over senior Emil Grantcharov (New Rochelle, N.Y.) at number four.
Chicago had the winning tandems in the bottom two flights as junior Michael Choi (Warrenville, Ill.) downed first-year
Dylan O'Connell-DeCerchio (Santa Monica, Calif.) at number five, 6-3, 6-0; and Matthew Liew (Greenwich, Conn.) needed three sets to defeat first-year
Sourish Gadhi (Morganville, N.J.) at number six, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The Beavers will take on No. 5 Tufts in the tournament semifinals, beginning with the doubles session at 5 p.m. ET on Friday while the singles matches will be played on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. ET. Tufts advanced with a 6-1 victory on Friday over No. 16 Pomona Pitzer.
