PASADENA, Calif. – After another rain cancellation last week, warm spring weather welcomed No. 27 Caltech Women's Tennis back to its home courts to host No. 13 Babson College in a rare "Beavers vs. Beavers" matchup.

A strong program from Wellesley, Massachusetts and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast region, Babson jumped ahead with a couple points in doubles, pitting their national second-ranked partnership against Caltech's top pairing. Juniors Anika Arora (Fremont, CA / Mission San Jose) and Yoyo Benchetrit (Toronto / St. Clements) staged a valiant comeback, falling just short 8-5 after trailing 7-0 against a relentless duo.

Caltech's #3 Doubles crew would not allow the guests to sweep the opening session, however, as junior Payal Patel (Cumming, Ga. / South Forsyth) and senior Emily Zhang (Sharon, Mass. / Sharon) kept their match close and forced a tiebreak at 7-7, winning the tiebreak 7-4 for the home Beavers' first match point.

Patel kept Caltech in it by following her doubles win with a 6-4, 6-3 triumph on Court 5 in the singles session after trailing 4-2 in her opening set.

Head Coach Benay Weintraub and the Beavers will have about 24 hours' rest before returning to their home courts to face Washington University in St. Louis ("WashU") on Tuesday at 2 p.m. Follow the team on X/Twitter and Instagram at @caltechwten, and find live scores and video at https://gocaltech.com/coverage.