No. 12 Men's Tennis vs. No. 38 MIT
NEWMAC Tournament Final
Sunday, April 26 | 12 p.m. 
Babson Tennis Courts | Babson Park, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson owns just six wins in 65 all-time matches against MIT in a series that dates back to the 1983-84 campaign. 
•    Despite the Engineers' lopsided edge in the series history, the Beavers have won each of the last three matches including their first postseason win over MIT last April. 
•    The home team has won each of the last six matches in the series since 2023. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Babson and MIT will meet for the 22nd time overall in the conference playoffs and for the 18th time in the finals going back to 1997 when both were members of the Constitution Athletic Conference (CAC). 
•    The Beavers were 0-20 all-time versus the Engineers in the postseason prior to last year's victory. 
•    The Green and White has claimed a pair of NEWMAC Tournament championships since 2021, while MIT has won 24 of the last 26 NEWMAC titles. 

LAST MEETING
•    Sophomore Edward Wang paired with classmate Sebastian Mendoza for a 6-3 victory at number two doubles and was a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Adam Sun at number two singles as the Beavers defeated MIT, 5-2, back on April 14 in Babson Park. 
•    Senior Alexander Merson won in straight sets at number one singles, first-year Sourish Gadhi won in two sets at number five and fellow rookie Max Lidman rallied for a three-set triumph at number six singles for Babson. 
•    Siddarth Marathe was a straight-set winner at number three singles, while Tyler Li won a third-set tiebreaker to outlast Mendoza at number four for the Engineers. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Top-seeded and 12th-ranked Babson (17-4) has won six consecutive matches and advanced to the NEWMAC final for the fourth year in a row thanks to a 4-0 victory over fourth-seeded Clark on Friday afternoon. 
•    Wang and Mendoza were victorious at number two doubles, Lidman and junior Louis Bourn won 6-0 at number three doubles and the trio of Wang, Gadhi and Lidman posted straight-set singles triumphs for the Beavers, who remained unbeaten on the year at home.
•    Merson is 17-2 in all matches and 11-1 at number one singles, Wang is 15-6 overall and 12-4 at the top two flights, Mendoza (12-9) is 6-4 at number three and first-year Maxim 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 25-6 overall and 9-2 at number two, and Bourn and Lidman are 4-1 overall and 3-1 at number three doubles. 

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
•    Second-seeded and 38th-ranked MIT (12-7) has now advanced to the NEWMAC final in all 26 of its tournament appearances after cruising past third-seeded Springfield 4-0 in Friday's semifinals. 
•    Li and Hunter Liao and won 6-3 at number one doubles, Grant Gallagher and Rushil Patel breezed to 6-0 triumph at number two, and both Liao and Gallagher were straight-set winners in singles for the Engineers, who are 0-5 versus top-25 foes this season.
•    Adam Sun (6-9) is 2-6 on the year at number one singles, Liao is 14-6 in all matches and 5-2 this spring at number two, Marathe (7-2) is 3-1 at number three, and Tyler Li (16-4) has won 11 of his last 13 matches and is 5-0 at number four.
•    Li and Liao are 17-8 overall and 4-0 at number one doubles, Gallagher and Rushil Patel played their first match of the season together at number two doubles in the win over Clark, and Marathe and Shrish Choudhary went 2-1 playing together in doubles last season. 

BEAVERS IN THE POSTSEASON
•    Going back to 2013, the NEWMAC Tournament has been played 13 times (excluding 2020) and Babson has advanced to the championship match 12 times. 
•    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 25 doubles wins by Mendoza and Wang are a new single-season record by a Babson doubles pairing. 
•    Mendoza has already set a new single-season record with 29 doubles victories this season and his 41 combined singles and doubles wins matched 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.
•    First-year Dylan O'Connell-DeCerchio is 13-3 in all matches with six dual-match wins, Ghadi is 13-6 and has gone 4-1 at number six singles, and sophomore Mason Ngyuen is 9-1 on the year and owns a four-match winning streak. 
•    Lidman is 8-4 overall with a six-match winning streak and classmate Rishi Batlanki is 7-6 in dual-match play with at least one victory at five different singles flights. 

TOURNAMENT TESTED
•    The trio of Mendoza, Merson and Wang played both singles and doubles in all five of Babson's postseason matches last season as it captured its first NEWMAC title since 2021 before advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time in school history. 
•    Wang owns a career postseason record of 4-0 in singles and 4-2 in doubles, Merson is 3-0 in singles and 4-1 in doubles, and Mendoza is 3-1 in singles and 4-1 in doubles.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers have won eight consecutive NEWMAC Tournament matches played in Babson Park dating back to 2018.
•    Babson boasts a 17-match winning streak against conference foes that dates back to the start of last season.
•    The Green and White has gone 14-1 this season when leading after doubles. 
•    Babson has won its last 21 matches at the Babson Tennis Courts going back to April 22, 2023. 

UP NEXT
•    The winner of Sunday's match will punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament and learn where it is headed for the opening round when the bracket is unveiled on Monday, May 4.