No. 12 Men's Tennis vs. Clark
Friday, April 24 | 3 p.m. 
Babson Tennis Courts | Babson Park, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 35-2 all-time against the Cougars in a series that goes back to 1997.
•    The Beavers have won 16 consecutive matches versus the Cougars since 2013 while dropping a point just twice over the last eight matches. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Babson and Clark will meet for the 11th time overall in the NEWMAC Tournament and the second consecutive season in the semifinals on Friday afternoon. 
•    The Beavers are 8-2 versus the Cougars in NEWMAC Tournament play, which includes three straight semifinal victories from 2013-15 and last year's 7-0 triumph. 
•    Clark's last postseason win over the Green and White was a 4-3 victory in the 2006 conference quarterfinals. 

LAST MEETING
•    Junior Louis Bourn, sophomore Sebastian Mendoza and first-year Max Lidman all recorded points in both singles and doubles to help the Beavers defeat Clark, 6-1, back on April 11 in Babson Park. 
•    First-year Dylan O'Connell-DeCerchio and sophomore Mason Nguyen also posted straight-set wins in singles for Babson, while Edward Shepherd-Johnson rallied for a 2-6, 6-0, 10-3 triumph at number two singles for the Cougars. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    No. 12 and top-seeded Babson (16-4) secured its second consecutive outright NEWMAC regular season title with a 7-0 sweep of Springfield on Saturday afternoon. 
•    The trio of Mendoza, senior Alexander Merson and first-year Maxim Zlobinsky all recorded victories in both singles and doubles for the Beavers, who captured all six singles matches in straight sets. 
•    Merson is 17-2 in all matches and 11-1 at number one singles, junior Edward Wang is 14-6 overall and 11-4 at the top two flights, Mendoza (12-9) is 6-4 at number three and Zlobsinsky is 5-2 at number four and 15-5 overall this season. 
•    Merson and Zlobinsky are 9-4 in all matches and 6-3 at number one, Wang and Mendoza are 24-6 overall and 8-2 at number two, and Bourn and senior Martin Mejia and are 4-3 overall with a pair of wins at number three doubles. 

SCOUTING THE COUGARS
•    Fourth-seeded Clark (14-5) advanced to the NEWMAC semifinals for the third year in a row after dispatching fifth-seeded Emerson 4-1 in Thursday's quarterfinals. 
•    Ziad Tabbara and Aris Kirkorian combined for a 6-3 win at number two doubles and then registered straight-set victories at second and third singles, while Graham Russo was part of a 6-3 triumph at number one doubles and then cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win at number four singles. 
•    The Cougars, who have already recorded their most wins in 14 seasons, are looking to reach the NEWMAC Tournament final for the first time since 2012. 

BEAVERS IN THE POSTSEASON
•    Babson has advanced the semifinal round in every NEWMAC Tournament going back to 2011 and has reached the conference final 11 times in 12 tries during this stretch. 
•    The Beavers, who defeated MIT in last year's NEWMAC Tournament final, claimed their first conference championship in 1996 and also defeated Coast Guard in the pandemic-shortened 2021 campaign. 

WELL-REPRESENTED IN THE RANKINGS
•    In addition to the Beavers moving up from 15th to 12th in the ITA Division III poll, two singles players and one doubles team were recognized when the ITA released its first individual rankings of the spring on Wednesday. 
•    Merson is ranked seventh and Wang 29th in singles, while the duo of Mendoza and Wang are 17th in doubles. 

WANG EARNS WEEKLY RECOGNITION
•    After helping Babson recorded victories over a pair of nationally-ranked foes, Wang was selected as the NEWMAC Singles Player of the Week for the third time this spring on Monday. 
•    He defeated Adam Sun of No. 26 MIT 6-2, 6-4 at number two singles in last Tuesday's 5-2 victory and then rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) triumph over Daniel Shemesh at number one as the Beavers came from behind to defeat No. 19 Brandeis 5-2 last Thursday.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
•    The 24 doubles wins by the pairing of Mendoza and Wang are a new single-season record by a Babson doubles pairing. 
•    Mendoza has already set a new single-season record with 28 doubles victories this season and his 40 combined singles and doubles wins are one shy of the program's single-season mark of 41 set by Wang last season.
•    Merson's 17 singles wins this spring are tied for fifth on the program's single-season list and just one shy of his career high set last season.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
•    Babson has seven players that have won at least nine singles matches this year and six of them are either freshmen or sophomores.
•    O'Connell-DeCerchio is 13-3 in all matches with six dual-match wins, fellow rookie Sourish Ghadi is 12-6 and has gone 4-1 at number six singles, and Ngyuen is 9-1 on the year and owns a four-match winning streak. 
•    Lidman is 7-4 overall with a five-match winning streak and classmate Rishi Batlanki is 7-6 in dual-match play with at least one victory at five different singles flights. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers have won seven consecutive NEWMAC Tournament matches played in Babson Park dating back to 2018.
•    Babson boasts a 16-match winning streak against conference foes that dates back to the start of last season.
•    The Green and White has gone 13-1 this season when leading after doubles. 
•    Babson has won its last 20 matches at the Babson Tennis Courts going back to April 22, 2023. 

UP NEXT 
•    The winner of Friday's semifinal will face either second-seeded MIT or third-seeded Springfield in Sunday's 12 p.m. NEWMAC Tournament final.