ST. LOUIS, Mo.—Babson College sophomore Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) was victorious in a pair of singles matches and teamed with junior Olivia Soffer (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) to pick up another win in doubles on the opening day of the NCAA Division III Singles and Doubles Championships at the Dwight Davis Memorial Tennis Center on Saturday. 

Cristiani, who advanced to the second round of the 32-player singles draw in her national championships debut last season, joined Soffer as the only players in school history to reach the quarterfinals with Saturday's triumphs. She beat Danna Taylor of Carnegie Mellon 6-1, 6-2 in the first round before fending off Maegan Deng of Redlands in three sets, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, in a second round match that took more than two hours. 

Cristiani, who is seeded seventh, jumped out to a 4-0 lead and broke Taylor for the third time to finish off the opening set before closing out the second set by taking the final three games after her 3-0 advantage had been trimmed to 3-2. After cruising through the opening set and winning four straight games to take a 5-3 lead in the second, Deng responded by winning deuce points in the next three games and then recording her second straight break of Cristiani to force a third set. 

Cristiani regained control of the match by taking 3-0 and 4-1 leads before dropping just one point in her final service game. 

Soffer, who was seeded fourth after making her third straight appearance in the singles bracket after reaching the quarterfinals in 2022 and the championship match last season, suffered a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Alisha Chulani of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the first round. Chulani won the final two games of the opening set after Soffer had closed within 4-3 and then followed up a break point by holding serve in the second to build a 4-1 advantage that she would not relinquish. 

Cristiani and Soffer wrapped up the day with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Tessa Trate and Raine Weis of Christopher Newport in their first round doubles match. The Beavers' duo, which is seeded fourth after advancing to last year's final, went up 3-0 in the first and recorded their second break point after the Captains had closed within 4-3 before winning the final three games of the second set to close out the match. 

Cristiani will face Katya Shepherd Johnson of MIT, who ousted last year's singles champion Angie Zhou of Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday, in Sunday's quarterfinals beginning at 12 p.m. ET. Soffer and Cristiani will then face Erica Ekstrand and Yuu Ishikawa in the doubles quarterfinals at 6 p.m.