ROME, Ga.—Senior Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) recorded a straight-set victory in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Cup singles semifinals on Saturday morning at the Rome Tennis Center. 

Cristiani cruised past Ananya Sriniketh of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 6-2, 6-1, to become the first player in Babson history to advance to the singles final at the ITA Cup. She had previously reached the semifinals of the singles and draw and the final of the doubles draw back in 2023. 

The top seed in the 16-player singles bracket, Cristiani has recorded three straight-set victories while not dropping more than three games in any set over the first three days of the tournament. She will face Rebecca Kong of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in Sunday's final. The two players have met twice before in doubles with Cristiani and Olivia Soffer '25 beating Kong and Alisha Chulani in last year's NCAA semifinals, while Kong exacted a bit of revenge with a win over Cristiani and first-year Sandra Sikharulidze (Kyiv, Ukraine) on Friday in the ITA Cup quarterfinals. 

In addition to her run in singles, Cristiani and Sikharulidze wrapped up play in doubles with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Kaya DeBruijn and Karina Elvestrom of Gustavus Adolphus College in a consolation match on Saturday afternoon to wrap up the tournament with a 2-1 record. 

Sunday's singles final we begin at 9:30 a.m.