Men's and Women's Tennis at the ITA Cup
Thursday-Sunday, October 16-19 
Rome Tennis Center | Rome, Ga. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    The Babson women's tennis team will be represented for the third consecutive season and the men's squad will make its ITA Cup debut beginning on Thursday in Rome, Ga. 
•    Senior Matia Cristiani is the top seed in the 16-player women's singles draw and also will pair with first-year Sandra Sikharulidze in the 16-team women's doubles bracket. 
•    Sophomores Sebastian Mendoza and Edward Wang will represent the Beavers in the 16-team men's doubles draw.
•    All singles players and doubles teams are guaranteed three matches.  

MEN'S DRAW
•    Mendoza and Wang will face Akshay Garapati and Jack Rivkin of Carleton (Minn.) in the first round of the doubles draw on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

WOMEN'S DRAWS
•    Top-seeded Cristiani will meet Victoria Wang of NYU in the opening round of singles on Thursday at 9 a.m.
•    Cristiani and Sikharulidze, who are 14-1 this fall, will open play in doubles against Nana Vang and Sascha Wells of Whitman (Wash.) at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.

THE ROAD TO ROME
•    Cristiani captured her second career ITA New England singles title by winning six matches over three days back in late September. She won a pair of three-set battles over Anna Lardner (second round) and Elsie Van Wieren (quarterfinals) and defeated Saina Deshpande of MIT 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals and Fiona Lee of MIT 6-0, 6-2 in the final. 
•    Cristiani and Skiharulidze fought off Lee and Katie Driscoll in a tiebreaker in the second round before cruising through their final four matches, including a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Lara Afolayanka and Kendall Smith of Wesleyan in the final. 
•    After receiving a first round by as the No. 2 seed, Mendoza and Wang defeated five consecutive NESCAC pairings to claim the Beavers' first ITA New England doubles title. 

MENDOZA AND WANG MAKE HISTORY
•    The Beavers' top doubles pairing are the first men's players in school history to qualify for the ITA Cup. 
•    Mendoza and Wang are 13-0 this season and fought off two match points to outlast Nicholas Chen and Simon Volkem of Williams 3-6, 7-5, 12-10 in the ITA New England Championships title match on October 5. 

ITA CUP HISTORY
•    Cristiani will make the second appearance of her career in singles at the ITA Cup after reaching the semifinals in 2023. 
•    Olivia Soffer '25 also qualified for the ITA Cup in singles twice, reaching the semifinals in 2022 and going 2-1 following a first round loss in October 2024. 
•    Cristiani and Soffer also advanced to the 2023 ITA Cup doubles final before falling to Oliwia Mikos and Rena Lin of Chicago.

FALL ACHIEVEMENTS
•    Cristiani, Sikharulidze, Mendoza and Wang have already earned ITA All-America honors thanks to their victories at the ITA New England Championships. 
•    Cristiani, who is now the only eight-time All-American in program history, matched Soffer's program record with the 97th doubles win of her career last Sunday at Bowdoin and is currently second behind Soffer in both singles (92) and combined wins (189). 
•    Wang and Mendoza are the Babson men's first doubles All-Americans, while Sikharulidze joins Cristiani and Soffer as just the third female in program history to secure All-America laurels.