Tennis Falls 5-3 to Babson in NEWMAC Semifinals

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The No. 2 seeded Wellesley College tennis team fell to No. 3 Babson 5-3 in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) semifinals on Saturday afternoon.

The Blue came out with one win in the opening doubles matches with the duo of junior Celeste Tran (Los Altos, Calif.) and Melinda Alviar (Indianapolis, Ind.) winning 8-4 over Morgan Mann (Newport Coast, Calif.) and Runsi Patro (Woodside, N.Y.) in the No. 3 match. Babson came back with two victories as Olivia Soffer (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and Adele Fernandez (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) won 8-6 over seniors Michaela Markwart (Hanover, Mass.) and Libby Chang (San Marino, Calif.) in the No. 1 match and Juliette Moschella (Little Silver, N.J.) and Shanaya Naik (Mumbai, India) defeated senior Michelle Shen (Dallas, Texas) and sophomore Cristiana DeAgazio (Winchester, Mass.) 8-6.

Chang evened up the match at 2-2 with a dominant 6-3, 6-1 win at the No. 4 singles over Naik. The Beavers then bounced back to win the following two matches as Moschella took down Shen 6-2, 6-3 on the No. 2 court and Soffer  6-2, 7-5 over Markwart in the No. 1 match. DeAgazio kept the Blue in the match with a comfortable 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 5 over Jane Wang (San Diego, Calif.). Babson then closed out the match as Patro defeated Tran 6-0, 6-1. 

The Blue finish the season at 10-6 overall and the Beavers will play in the NEWMAC Championship tomorrow at No. 1 MIT at 12:00 PM.