WELLESLEY, Mass. – No. 34 Wellesley College tennis team defeated No. 38 Babson 6-3 to move into second place in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC).

With the victory, The Blue improve 9-5 overall and 6-1 in conference play. Babson drops its second consecutive match and slips to 10-9 overall and 6-2 in the NEWMAC.

The doubles matches began with senior Michelle Shen (Dallas, Texas) and sophomore Cristiana DeAgazio (Winchester, Mass.) handling Emily Stouch (Plantation, Fla.) and Morgan Mann (Newport Coast, Calif.) 8-4 in the No. 2 doubles. The Beavers would bounce back as Adèle Fernández (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) and Olivia Soffer (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) won 8-5 in the No. 1 doubles over sophomores Annissa Mu (Saratoga, Calif.) and Melinda Alviar (Indianapolis, Ind.). With the match tied at 1-1, senior duo Michaela Markwart (Hanover, Mass.) and Libby Chang (San Marino, Calif.) came away with a big 8-5 win over Shanaya Naik (Mumbai, India) and Juliette Moschella (Little Silver, N.J.) on court No. 3.

Mu opened up singles play with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Moschella in the No. 2 match. The Beavers cut the lead back to 3-2 after Soffer proved victories in the No. 1 singles over Markwart by a score of 6-3, 6-3. After a hard fought 7-6 first set, Shen dominated set two by a score of 6-0 and brought the Wellesley lead back up to two. 

In the No. 6 singles, DeAgazio dropped the first set 6-0 to Babson sophomore Jane Wang (San Diego, Calif.). DeAgazio then battled back to win the second set 6-4 and the third 6-2 to secure the Wellesley victory. Naik picked up a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Chang in the No. 5 match. Alviar picked up a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Stouch in the battle of the southpaws to close out the match.

The Blue will complete the regular season on Saturday, April 30 with a match at Smith starting at 12:00 PM. Babson will next play in the NEWMAC postseason tournament.