No. 21 Women's Tennis vs. No. 44 Wellesley
NEWMAC Tournament Semifinal
Saturday, May 4 | 12 p.m. 
Babson Tennis Courts | Babson Park, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 13-33 all-time against Wellesley in a series that dates back to 1989.
•    The Beavers have won three straight and 10 of their last 13 matches against the Blue, which includes a 7-2 triumph in the regular season finale last Saturday. 
•    The Green and White has won seven consecutive matches at home versus Wellesley going back to the fall of 2014. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Babson is 5-7 all-time against Wellesley in the conference playoffs and Saturday's match marks the seventh time the teams have met in the semifinals going back to the fall of 2014. 
•    The Beavers have won three straight and five of their last six NEWMAC Tournament matches against the Blue over the last decade. 
•    The Green and White is unbeaten (3-0) all-time versus Wellesley in conference tournament matches at home. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Second-seeded and 21st-ranked Babson (12-5) has won three straight matches after defeating Wellesley, 7-2, last Saturday. 
•    Senior Juliette Moschella, junior Olivia Soffer and sophomore Matia Cristiani all won in both singles and doubles for the Beavers, who also got singles victories from sophomore Elena Keitt and first-year Chaniel Soffer after building a 2-1 lead in doubles.
•    Olivia Soffer is 18-2 overall and 12-1 on the year at number one singles, Cristiani (24-1) is 12-0 at number two and owns a 13-match winning streak, and Keitt (8-3) and Moschella (9-4) both went unbeaten in league play. 
•    Olivia Soffer and Cristiani are 26-2 overall and 12-1 at number one doubles, Chaniel Soffer and senior Adèle Fernández have gone 7-4 at number two and the duo of Moschella and first-year Dana Kamal are 2-2 at number three doubles. 

SCOUTING THE BLUE
•    Third-seeded Wellesley (13-5) has won seven of its last eight matches after defeating sixth-seeded Springfield, 5-0, in Tuesday's quarterfinals. 
•    Kriti Sarav won by retirement at number six singles and Veda Madhusadan posted a 6-0, 6-1 victory at number five for the Blue, which led 3-0 after doubles and have now advanced to the NEWMAC semifinals in 18 straight tournament appearances going back to the fall of 2004. 
•    Sarav, who has won a team-high 12 dual matches, and Emilee Pak are both 16-6 on the year in all singles matches, Suzanne Xu is 14-5 overall and 9-3 at number two, and Annissa Mu is 11-10 overall and 8-6 this spring at number one. 
•    Mu and Melinda Alviar are 11-6 at number one doubles, Pak and Xu are 11-5 at number two and Sarav and Lily Cade have gone 11-4 with eight wins at number three. 

SOFFER, CRISTIANI LEAD ITA AND NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS
•    Cristiani remained No. 2 in the newest ITA Division III singles rankings, which came out last Tuesday, while Soffer moved up from No. 17 after the fall to No. 7 as Babson and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps are the only schools with multiple players in the top 10. 
•    Soffer and Cristiani also rank first and second, respectively, in the NCAA Region I singles rankings and are first in doubles. 

TOURNAMENT TESTED
•    Babson, which is seeking its sixth consecutive appearance in the NEWMAC final, returns plenty of experience after advancing to the program's first NCAA Tournament regional final last spring. 
•    Cristiani went 4-0 at number two singles, Soffer won both her completed matches at number one and Moschella went 2-2 at number four singles. 
•    Soffer and Cristiani went 3-1 at number one doubles, while Fernández paired with Keitt to win three of four matches at number three doubles. 

REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS
•    With 26 doubles victories this season, Cristiani and Soffer have already broken the program's single-season mark of 24 wins set by Cristiani on the way to reaching the NCAA Division III final last May. 
•    Cristiani's 50 combined victories this season are just four shy of Soffer's record of 54 in 2023 and has her just two wins shy of reaching 100 for her career. 
•    Not to be outdone, Soffer owns 44 combined wins this season as she continues to add to her program records for singles (70), doubles (62) and combined (132) victories. 

STREAKING BEAVERS
•    Senior Jane Wang has won five consecutive singles matches, while Kamal and Keitt both own four straight wins as all three players finished unbeaten in conference play. 
•    Senior Shanaya Naik and sophomore Shyla Khattar have both won their last three singles matches entering the postseason.

TRENDS TO WATCH
•    The Beavers have led after doubles in 14 of 17 matches this season. 
•    Babson is 11-0 on the year when it earns a point at number six singles and 8-1 when it wins at number five singles. 
•    The Green and White is 10-2 this season when recording a victory at number two doubles. 
•    The Beavers have won their last 13 matches at the Babson Tennis Courts going back to the 2022 NEWMAC Tournament. 

UP NEXT
•    The winner of Saturday's match will face either top-seeded and eighth-ranked MIT or fourth-seeded Smith in Sunday's NEWMAC Tournament final.