ST. LOUIS, Mo.—Sophomore Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) advanced to the semifinals of the singles draw and stayed unbeaten alongside junior Olivia Soffer (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) in doubles on Sunday at the NCAA Division III Championships. 

Last season's NCAA finalists in doubles, Cristiani and Soffer recorded their second consecutive straight-set win by defeating Erica Ekstrand and Yuu Ishikawa of Wiliams, 6-2, 6-0 following a weather delay on Sunday night. Cristiani and Soffer got off to a quick start recording a pair of service breaks to go up 5-1 on the way to recording a 6-2 first-set win. They dropped just six points in the second set and registered a 6-0 victory to advance to the semifinals for the second year in a row. 

Cristiani opened the day with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Katya Shepherd Johnson of MIT in an quarterfinal match that featured the last two New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Rookie of the Year honorees. Cristiani went up 2-0 and rallied from down 30-40 to win three straight points after the players traded service breaks to build a 4-1 advantage en route to a one-set lead. 

Cristani went up 4-2 in the second set thanks to her second service break, only to see Shepherd Johnson win seven of the next eight points to even the set at 4-4. Both players held serve over the next four games to force a tiebreaker that saw Cristiani win four straight points to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead winning the second of two match points. 

Cristiani saw her singles run come to an end against Sylwia Mikos of Chicago with a 6-3, 6-1 loss in the semifinals. Cristiani had her serve broken to go down 3-1 in the opening set before taking advantage of a pair of double faults to return the break before holding serve to pull even at 3-3. 

Mikos rallied from down 30-40 to win the next two games on the way to winning the first set before erasing a 1-0 deficit in the second by winning six unanswered games. 

The reigning NCAA runner-up in doubles, Soffer and Cristiani will take on Deliala Freidman and Lily Dounchis of Amherst in a semifinal match at 1 p.m.

TOURNAMENT NOTES
•    Soffer and Cristiani are now 30-2 on the year in doubles. 
•    Cristiani owns a single-season school-record 59 wins in singles and doubles and her 107 combined victories over the last two seasons are tied for second behind only Soffer (138) in Beavers' program history. 
•    Cristiani, who had her 17-match singles winning streak snapped on Sunday, concludes the season with a 29-2 record in singles with her only other loss coming to Mikos in the semifinals at the ITA Cup back in October.