CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — No. 18 Babson College junior Olivia Soffer (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and sophomore Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) earned points in both singles and doubles but No. 11 MIT proved to have superior depth and captured a 6-3 victory over the Beavers in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's tennis match Friday afternoon at the DuPont Tennis Courts.

With the loss, the Beavers suffered their first conference loss of the season, falling to 9-5 overall and 5-1 in the NEWMAC. MIT won their sixth match in a row and improved to 11-3 overall and 6-0 in league play, putting the Engineers in the driver's seat for the NEWMAC regular season title.

Soffer and Cristiani, the top-ranked doubles team in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Region, captured an 8-4 victory at number one doubles over MIT sophomores Alaina Kolli (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Artemis Pados (Delray Beach, Fla.). That only put the Beavers on the board, though, as MIT junior Jay Lu (Austin, Texas) and first-year Saina Deshpande (Pine, India) had already defeated senior Juliette Moschella (Little Silver, N.J.) and sophomore Elena Keitt (Austin, Texas) at number three, 8-1, and senior Kimberly Liao (Commack, N.Y.) and first-year Anastasia Samets (Ocean, N.J.) downed senior Adèle Fernández (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) and first-year Chaniel Soffer (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at number two, 8-3.

With the victory, Soffer matched the program record of 60 all-time doubles wins held by Francesca Russo from 2002-06.

Kolli pushed the MIT lead to 3-1 lead with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over sophomore Kamila Stasiowska (Burlington, Conn.) at number four singles, and Samets made it 4-1 with a 6-0, 6-3 verdict over sophomore Mariana Campos (Houston, Texas) at number six.

Cristiani and Olivia Soffer pulled the Beavers back to within 4-3 with their singles victories, Cristiani breezing past Liao at number two, 6-2, 6-2, and Soffer getting past first-year Katya Shepherd Johnson (Takoma Park, Md.) at number one, 6-4, 7-5. The Engineers closed out the team score with wins in the two remaining matches, a 6-2, 6-2 victory for Lu over Chaniel Soffer at number three, and a 6-2, 7-6 (8-0) triumph for Deshpande over junior Laetitia Rizk (Beirut, Lebanon) at number five.

Babson is right back in action Saturday, hosting Springfield in a conference match at 2 p.m. at the Babson Tennis Courts. MIT hosts Wheaton in a NEWMAC encounter on Saturday at 12 p.m.