No. 12 Men's Tennis vs. No. 23 Skidmore
NCAA Tournament | Second Round
Saturday, May 9 | 2:30 p.m.
Pickard Tennis Courts | Brunswick, Maine

WHAT TO KNOW
• After claiming its second straight conference tournament championship and third since 2021 back on April 26, Babson received the NEWMAC automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and is one of five teams headed to Bowdoin for the opening weekend of the championship. 

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Friday, May 8 | First Round 
Roger Williams 4, Farmingdale State 1 
No. 24 Skidmore 4, Bridgewater State 0

Saturday, May 9 | Second Round
No. 6 Bowdoin (17-4) vs. Roger Williams (19-5), 12 p.m. 
No. 12 Babson (18-4) vs. No. 24 Skidmore (17-5), 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 10 | Regional Final
Second Round winners, 1 p.m. 

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 1-1 all-time against the Thoroughbreds in a series that dates back to the 2005-06 campaign.
• Skidmore took the first meeting, 7-0, in Waterville, Maine, back on March 11, 2006, and the Beavers won the most recent encounter, 5-2, back in February in New York.

LAST MEETING
• Sophomores Edward Wang and Sebastian Mendoza produced victories in both singles and doubles as No. 12 Babson defeated Skidmore in the first match of the spring season on February 21 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
• Wang and Mendoza opened the match with a 6-2 win at number one doubles, but the Thoroughbreds secured the doubles point when Kyle Lundberg and Yuval Goodman were winners at number two (6-4) and Mahen Bitkuri and Radin Sadeghi took a 6-3 decision at number three.
• The Beavers captured the team victory with four straight wins in singles. Senior Alexander Merson outlasted Goodman at number one, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1; Wang and Mendoza won in straight sets at numbers two and three, and first-year Maxim Zlobinsky pulled out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 verdict over Sadeghi at number five. First-year Dylan O'Connell-DeCerchio tacked on a point for Babson with a win at number six, and Skidmore earned its second point with Ege Topbas' win at number four.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
NCAA Tournament Appearance: 6th
Best NCAA Finish: 2025 quarterfinals 
• No. 12 Babson (18-4) has won seven consecutive matches and is coming off a 4-2 victory over MIT in the NEWMAC Tournament final back on April 26 in Babson Park.
• Senior Alexander Merson and sophomore Edward Wang won matches in both singles and doubles and first-year Max Lidman recorded the decisive point at number six singles for the Beavers, who captured their second consecutive NEWMAC title and third since 2021. First-year Maxim Zlobinsky registered a singles win and the teams of Merson-Zlobinsky and Wang-Sebastian Mendoza clinched the doubles point for the Green and White.
• Merson is 18-2 overall in singles and 10-1 in dual matches at number one, Wang is 16-6 overall, including 5-0 at number one and 8-4 at number two, and Zlobinsky is 15-6 this year, including 12-5 in dual matches. Mendoza (12-10) has 10 wins in dual matches, Lidman (9-4) is 8-1 in dual matches, and first-years Sourish Gadhi (13-6) and Dylan O'Connell-DeCerchio (13-3) both have 13 wins overall.
• Wang and Mendoza are 26-6 at doubles, including 12-5 in dual matches, while Merson and Zobinsky are 10-4, including 7-3 at number one doubles.

SCOUTING THE THOROUGHBREDS
NCAA Tournament Appearance: 13th
Best NCAA Finish: Regional Final (2009, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019)
• No. 23 Skidmore (17-5) brings a five-match winning streak into Saturday's meeting, including a 4-3 triumph over Vassar in Sunday's Liberty League championship match and a 4-0 victory over Bridgewater State in Friday's NCAA Tournament first round.
• The Thoroughbreds eased through the doubles against BSU with Goodman and Harrison Gradin winning 6-0 at number one and Lundberg and Topbas taking the number three contest, 6-1. Skidmore dropped just two game on the way to winning three singles matches as Lundberg won 6-0, 6-0 at number two, Topbas won 6-0, 6-1 at number four, and Nika Mori won 6-1, 6-0 at number five.
• Lundberg was named Most Outstanding Player of the Liberty League Tournament, leading the Thoroughbreds to their 16th conference title.

BEAVERS IN THE POSTSEASON
• Babson is making its second straight and sixth overall NCAA Tournament appearance. 
• After dropping first round matches in both 1997 and 2013, the Beavers won their opening matches in 2014 and 2021 before winning second and third-round matches to advance to the quarterfinals last year.
• The Green and White is 2-1 all-time in second round matches with a 5-0 win over Stevenson in 2021 and a 4-0 decision over No. 36 Stevens last year following a 5-0 loss to No. 3 Middlebury back in 2014. 

TOURNAMENT TIME
• In addition to competing in the NCAA Team Tournament beginning this weekend, Babson will be represented in the NCAA Singles Tournament when the competition begins on May 23 at Champions Tennis Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• Merson was one of 32 players in Division III to earn a spot in the singles draw. In addition, Wang was named as the first alternate and will have a chance to compete if any of the 32 players selected scratch.
• Merson becomes Babson's second men's player, and first since David Weisman '98 in 1998, to play in the NCAA Singles Championship. Weisman, who reached the second round of the 1997 draw, won four of his five matches to become the Beavers' first individual national champion in any sport in 1998. 

MERSON, COACHING STAFF EARN MAJOR AWARDS AS EIGHT LAND ON ALL-CONFERENCE  TEAM
• Merson was voted Player of the Year and head coach Michael Kopelman and assistants Kartik Erodula and Andrew Imrie were honored with the Coaching Staff of the Year for the third time in four seasons when the NEWMAC announced its post-season awards last week.
• Merson was joined on the All-Conference singles and doubles teams by Mondoza and Zlobinsky. Sophomore Mason Nguyen and first-year Rishi Batlanki were named All-Conference in singles and senior Martin Mejia, junior Louis Bourn and Wang earned spots on the All-Conference doubles team.

NATIONALLY RANKED FOES
• The Beavers enter the NCAA Tournament having played nine matches against teams that are in the ITA Top 30 Team Rankings.
• The Beavers are 5-4 vs. ranked teams with wins over No. 20 Rensselaer, No. 27 NYU, No. 2 Chicago, No. 26 MIT, and No. 19 Brandeis and two losses to No. 3/5 Tufts and one each to No. 7 Bowdoin and No. 20 Amherst.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
• The Beavers have set a number of team and individual records during the 2025-26 campaign, which includes earning their highest national ranking in program history at No. 8 on March 25.
• Mendoza and Wang have won 26 doubles matches together this season, which is the most by a pairing in single-season program history. Mendoza (30) and Wang (27) bother surpassed Merson's single-season doubles win mark of 22 set last season.
• Wang (43) and Mendoza (42) also surpassed Wang's single-season combined wins mark of 41 set last season.
• Merson's 18 singles wins this spring is tied for fourth on the program's single-season list, and Wang's career total of 84 combined wins ranks fifth all-time.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 15-1 on the year and 36-2 since the beginning of last year when claiming the doubles point, with the only losses to No. 5 Tufts on March 20, 2026 and No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in last year's NCAA Tournament quarterfinal.
• The Beavers are 8-2 at number one doubles, 9-1 at number two and 6-4 at number three since the beginning of April.
• In singles, Babson has gone 10-1 at number six, 9-1 at number one, 9-2 at number two and 8-2 at number five since the start of April, including six straight wins at numbers two and five.

UP NEXT
• The winner of Saturday's second-round match will face either No. 6 Bowdoin or Roger Williams in Sunday's regional final at 1 p.m.