Blue Tennis Topples Babson To Advance To NEWMAC Final

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Second-seeded Wellesley College tennis earned a 5-2 semifinal win over third-seeded Babson College on Saturday at MIT's J.B. Carr Tennis Bubble to advance to the 2016 New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship match.

The Blue will make their first championship appearance since 2013 and will take on top-seeded MIT at 1:00 PM tomorrow, Sunday, October 23. 

Wellesley got out to a 2-1 lead following doubles action. The Blue opened with an 8-4 win at No. 3 doubles, with sophomore Rosanne Hu (Sugar Land, Texas) and first year Selina Peng (Taichung, Taiwan) earning the first point of the match versus Babson juniors Kylie Kam (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Claire Foster (Orange, Conn.).

The Beavers struck back to tie the match with an 8-5 victory by junior Yagmur Akgul (Istanbul, Turkey) and senior Dina Weick (Woodbridge, Conn.), as Babson's top pairing downed Blue senior Carina Chen (Hong Kong) and sophomore Justine Huang (Coto de Caza, Calif.) in No. 1 doubles.

Wellesley would get the upper-hand heading into singles play thanks to the Blue's No. 2 doubles duo of senior Andjela Stojkovic (Victoria, British Columbia) and first year Sarah Yan (Holmdel, N.J.). The three-time NEWMAC doubles team of the week defeated Babson sophomores Chloe Brandt (Denver, Colo.) and Eleni Gianelos (West Chester, Pa.), 8-5.

In singles, Akgul defeated Chen 6-1, 6-1 at the No. 1 spot, but the Blue secured wins at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 to clinch the match. Yan defeated Gianelos 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2 and Huang topped first year Tatiana Ramirez (Miami, Fla.) 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3. Stojkovic then clinched the Blue victory when she earned a 6-1, 6-3 win over Weick to advance the Blue to Sunday's championship match. 

2016 NEWMAC Women's Tennis Championship

Quarterfinals: Wednesday (at higher seed)
No. 3 Babson def. No. 6 Springfield, 5-0
No. 4 Mount Holyoke def. No. 5 Wheaton, 5-0 

Semifinals: Saturday (at MIT)
No. 1 MIT def. No. 4 Mount Holyoke, 5-0
No. 2 Wellesley def. No. 3 Babson, 5-2

Championship: Sunday (at MIT)
No. 1 MIT vs. No. 2 Wellesley – 1:00 p.m.