Anna 
No. 18 Babson College pulled off a major upset on Sunday, defeating No. 6 Middlebury College 5-2 in a top-20 men’s tennis clash at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ Biszantz Family Tennis Center.
Junior Alexander Merson (Palisades Park, N.J.) and first-year Sabastian Mendoza (Weston, Fla.) led the way for Babson, securing victories in both singles and doubles. The Beavers improved to 6-1 this season with their second win over a top-20 team, while Middlebury suffered its first loss, falling to 4-1.
Senior Wesley Zhang (Staten Island, N.Y.) and first-year Edward Wang (Burr Ridge, Ill.) also earned key singles wins for Babson. In doubles, senior Brady Anderson (Rochester, N.Y.) paired with Mendoza, while Merson teamed up with senior Ole Lepsoe (Oslo, Norway) to help secure the doubles point.
Middlebury picked up two singles victories, with junior Julian Wu (Tenafly, N.J.) and senior Noah Laber (Ventura, Calif.) salvaging points for the Panthers.
The doubles matches were tightly contested. Merson and Lepsoe secured a 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles over Middlebury’s Neel Epstein (New York, N.Y.) and Laber. Middlebury responded with Wu and sophomore Noah Lewis (Gaithersburg, Md.) defeating Wang and Zhang 6-1 at No. 3. In the decisive No. 2 doubles match, Anderson and Mendoza took an early lead but had to battle through a back-and-forth tiebreaker to edge junior Hugh Hentschel (Rye, N.Y.) and sophomore Thehan Wijemanne (Colombo, Sri Lanka) 7-5.
Babson carried its momentum into singles play, winning the first set in all six matches. Zhang defeated Hentschel 6-2, 6-4 at No. 5, while Mendoza secured a 7-5, 6-4 win over Wijemanne at No. 6. Wang sealed the victory for Babson with a 7-5, 6-2 triumph over Epstein, who is ranked No. 10 in Division III.
Merson added another point with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Lewis at No. 4. Middlebury managed to take the final two matches, as Wu rallied from a set down to defeat Lepsoe 1-6, 6-1, 6-0 at No. 1, and Laber, ranked No. 23 in Division III, edged Anderson 6-7, 6-3, 1-0 (10-5) at No. 2.
Babson continues its California trip with matches against No. 32 Salisbury at 12 p.m. ET and Glendale CC at 4:30 p.m. ET on Monday. Middlebury will look to rebound on Tuesday when they face top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 8 p.m. ET.
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