Box Score BABSON PARK, Mass.— Senior Alexander Merson (Palisades Park, N.J.) and sophomore Edward Wang (Burr Ridge, Ill.) won matches in both singles and doubles and first-year Max Lidman (Stockholm, Sweden) recorded the decisive point at number six singles as top-seeded and No. 12 Babson College defeated second-seeded and 38th-ranked MIT, 4-2, in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men's Tennis Tournament final on Sunday afternoon at the Babson Tennis Courts.
 
With its seventh straight win, Babson improves to 18-4 on the season while claiming its second straight NEWMAC title and third since 2021. MIT, which won 24 conference championships without a loss prior to falling the Babson in last year's final, ends the year at 12-8.
 
The Beavers captured the doubles point with victories in the top two flights as Merson and first-year Maxim Zlobinsky (Greenvale, N.Y.) cruised past first-years Tyler Li (San Diego, Calif.) and Hunter Liao (Hagerstown, Md.) at number one, 6-2, and Wang and sophomore Sebastian Mendoza (Weston, Fla.) got past junior Grant Gallagher (Irvine, Calif.) and graduate student Rushil Patel (Duncan, S.C.) at number two, 6-4. Lidman and junior Louis Bourn (Geneva, Switzerland) were up 5-4 at third doubles on juniors Shrish Choudhary (Fremont, Calif.) and Siddharth Marathe (Pune, India) when doubles play was stopped.
 
Wang, who was named tournament Most Outstanding Player, started singles play off with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Liao at number two for a 2-0 Babson lead. MIT came back to tie the match when Marathe pulled out a second-set tiebreaker to defeat Zlobinsky at number three, 6-2, 7-6 (9-7), and Li edged Mendoza at number four, 6-4, 7-5.
 
Babson pulled ahead again with Merson's 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over junior Adam Sun (Glendale, Ariz.) in the top flight, and then clinched the title when Lidman came back from down a set to defeat Gallagher at number six, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. First-year Sourish Gadhi (Morganville, N.J.) was just one game away from winning the final match at number five, leading Choudhary 7-5, 5-7, 5-2.
 
The Beavers earn the NEWMAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Championships, and will learn their first-round opponent and site when the tournament field is announced at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, May 4 via ncaa.com.
 
MATCH NOTES
• Babson defeated MIT for the fourth straight time in the last two years but just the seventh time in 66 all-time matches in a series that dates back to the 1983-84 campaign. 
• The Beavers have won two straight post-season victories over the Engineers after MIT won the first 20 post-season meeting between the two sides.
• The Green and White boast an 18-match winning streak against conference foes that dates back to the start of last season.
• Babson has gone 15-1 this season when leading after doubles. 
• Since April of 2023, the Beavers have won their last 22 matches at the Babson Tennis Courts.