NCAA Division III Singles and Doubles Championships
Saturday, May 23 – Tuesday, May 27
Champions Tennis Club | Chattanooga, Tenn. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    Babson men's tennis Alexander Merson was selected to compete in the NCAA Division III Singles Championship back on May 6 and sophomore Edward Wang, who was the first alternate, was added to the 32-player singles draw on Thursday afternoon. 
•    Merson and Wang are the first Babson players to be selection to compete in the NCAA Singles Championship since David Weisman '98 captured the program's only national title back in 1998. 

OPENING MATCHES
•    Merson, who is seeded fourth in the 32-player singles draw will take on Alexander Ekstrand of Chicago in Saturday's first round at 9 a.m. with the winner advancing to meet either Eugene Lee of Vassar or Alex Ganchev of Tufts in the second round at 1 p.m. 
•    Wang will face Santiago Garza of Case Western Reserve with the winner moving on to face second-seeded Michael Melnikov of Swarthmore or Colin Scruggs of WashU.

SCHEDULE OF PLAY | SINGLES DRAW 
Saturday, May 23
Singles first round, 9 a.m. 
Singles second round, 1 p.m.

Sunday, May 24
Singles quarterfinals, 10 a.m.

Monday, May 25
Singles semifinals, 10 a.m. 

Tuesday, May 26
Singles final, 10 a.m.

HOW THEY GOT HERE
•    Merson, who is ranked 17th in singles by the ITA, is 19-2 on the year and enters the singles championship riding a six-match winning streak going back to April 3. 
•    Wang owns a 17-7 record in singles and played eight matches against the 32 players competing in the NCAA singles draw. 
•    Merson became the first player in Babson history to advance to the semifinals of the ITA New England Singles Championship back in October, while Wang made history by pairing to capture the doubles championship with fellow sophomore Sebastian Mendoza to secure the Beavers' first appearance at the ITA Cup. 

RISING IN THE RECORD BOOKS
•    Merson's 19 victories this season are tied for second on the program's single-season list along with Weisman (1997-98) and Mendoza (2024-25) behind Wang's 24 wins as a rookie last year. 
•    Wang's 17 victories this season are tied for sixth on Babson's single-season chart, and both players are approaching the program's all-time record of 44 career singles wins. Wang enters the championship tied for seventh with 41 and Merson is 10th with 37 over two years after transferring to Babson from Brandeis. 

HISTORY LESSON
•    Merson and Wang are just the second and third Babson players to earn a spot at the NCAA Division III Singles Championship, joining Weisman, who qualified in both 1997 and 1998. 
•    Weisman reached the second round in his championship debut in 1997 before going 5-0, which includes a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Steve Nasson of Kalamazoo in the final, to become Babson's first individual national champion in any sport back in 1998. 

MERSON, KOPELMAN HIGHLIGHT BABSON'S POSTSEASON HONORS
•    Merson was selected as the conference of the year, while head coach Michael Kopelman and assistants Kartik Erodula and Andrew Irmie were selected as the league's coaching staff of the year highlighting eight players that earned recognition when the NEWMAC announced its postseason awards earlier this month.
•    Merson, who garnered all-conference honors in both singles and doubles, became the program's sixth NEWMAC Player of the Year honoree since 2009 and third in the last six seasons, while Wang was named to the all-league doubles team for the second year in a row. 
•    Kopelman and his assistants collected NEWMAC Coaching Staff of the Year honors for the third time in the past four seasons, and then became the first in program history to be named ITA Northeast Regional Coach of the Year last week after leading the Beavers to their second consecutive conference title and second straight NCAA Tournament regional final. 

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
•    Merson is 3-3 in matches versus the 32-player singles field this season, which includes straight-set wins over Javier Gonzalez of Tufts and Andreas Sillaste of Amherst, in addition to a three-set victory over Shrikeshav Grantcharov of Chicago back in March. 
•    Wang is 2-6 against the tournament field with wins over Emil Grantcharov in the Beavers' upset of Chicago back in March and a three-set triumph over Daniel Shemesh of Brandeis in mid-April.