No. 14 Women's Tennis vs. No. 7 Johns Hopkins
Saturday, January 31 | 4:30 p.m. 
Longfellow Health Club | Wellesley, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson and Johns Hopkins will meet for the second time in less than a year on Saturday afternoon in the second all-time meeting between the two programs.
• The Blue Jays own a 1-0 lead in the career series, and Saturday's match will be the first one played in Massachusetts.

LAST MEETING
• Olivia Soffer '25 and senior Matia Cristiani registered victories in both singles and doubles, but 14th-ranked Babson dropped a 4-2 decision to No. 13 Johns Hopkins in the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament on May 10, 2025, inside Middlebury's Nelson Recreation Center. 
• Olivia and Matia won the top doubles flight, 6-0, but the Blue Jays came back to earn the doubles point when junior Sydney Langer and sophomore Sahana Madala won at number three, 6-2, and senior Kamila Wong and sophomore Ava Li were winners at number two, 6-4.
• Cristiani put the Beavers on the board with a 6-1, 7-5 triumph at number two singles before the Blue Jays answered with their first singles win by Li at number four, 6-2, 7-5. Soffer overcame a setback in the first set to win a 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 verdict at number one singles, but junior Lia Melvin countered with a three-set triumph at number three, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. Madala finished off the victory for Johns Hopkins with a 6-4, 6-2 win at number five.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 14 Babson (1-0, 1-0 NEWMAC) is playing its first dual match of the spring after competing in five tournaments last fall as well as posting a 7-0 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) victory over Salve Regina.
• The highlight of the fall season was provided by Cristiani, who captured Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) New England championships in both singles and doubles with first-year Sandra Sikharulidze before going on to win the ITA Cup national singles crown, the first such title in program history.
• Cristiani (16-0) is ranked No. 1 in Division III in the ITA singles rankings that came out after the fall season while first-year Tina Liu (8-2), who won three matches to advance to the ITA New England singles quarterfinals, is ranked 34th. Sikharulidze (6-4), who advanced to the ITA New England singles round of 16, along with juniors Riya Matharoo (6-3) and Dana Kamal (6-3) and first-year Jolie Wang (6-3) all had strong fall campaigns
• Cristiani and Sikharulidze (15-2) are ninth in the ITA doubles rankings after advancing to the quarterfinals at the ITA Cup and capturing the ITA New England championship. Sophomores Alessandra Cristiani and Mia Sorrentino were 10-2 in doubles in the fall and Kamal and first-year Manuela Moscoso were 7-1.

SCOUTING THE BLUE JAYS
• No. 7 Johns Hopkins (0-0), which competed in eight tournaments in the fall, will open the spring portion of the season Saturday morning at Brown before coming to Natick to meet the Beavers.
• Melvin and Jay Xiao became just the second Johns Hopkins doubles team to make the championship match of the ITA Cup in October. Madala and first-year Claire Loftus became the third straight Blue Jay doubles team to win the ITA Southeast Regional title, defeating Melvin and Xiao in the championship match. In addition, Melvin advanced to the semifinals in the Southeast championship singles draw and Wong and Li made the semis in the championship doubles draw.
• Melvin (6-2) is ranked No. 30 in Division III in the ITA singles rankings while Ziao (5-3) is 35th. Three Blue Jay doubles teams are in the national rankings as Melvin and Xiao (8-3) are No. 2, Loftus and Madala (10-2) are No. 6, and Wong and Li (7-1) are No. 21.
• The Blue Jays advanced to the NCAA Tournament semifinals in 2025 and finished with a 16-8 overall record, then sent Xiao in singles and Wong and Li in doubles to the NCAA singles and doubles championships.

TOUGH TESTS AWAIT
• Saturday's encounter is the first of six straight matches and 12 overall this spring for Babson against teams ranked in the ITA Division III poll.
• The Beavers will meet No. 24 NYU on February 28, No. 10 Bowdoin on March 1, and No. 1 Wash. U., No. 6 Wesleyan and No. 7 Johns Hopkins during Spring Break from March 15-18 in Hilton Head, S.C.
• The Green and White will face No. 23 Brandeis, No. 17 Williams, and No. 31 Skidmore between April 1-11, and wind up the regular season against No. 21 Wellesley, No. 19 Washington & Lee, and No. 8 MIT between April 19-25.

ALL-NEWMAC RETURNEES
• Matia Cristiani leads the way among active Beavers who have received NEWMAC post-season recognition, earning the 2023 Rookie of the Year award and three straight All-NEWMAC first team honors in both singles and doubles from 2023-25.
• Junior Chaniel Soffer and sophomore Alessandra Cristiani were both named All-NEWMAC second team in singles in 2025.

ASSAULT ON THE RECORD BOOKS
• After Olivia Soffer '25 rewrote the Babson women's tennis record books over the past four years, Matia Cristiani is in the process of shattering the standards established by Soffer.
• Matia begins the spring season with career records of 96-4 in singles, 98-10 in doubles and 194-14 overall. She has already surpassed Olivia's previous program high mark of 97 doubles wins; she sits three wins shy of Olivia's record of 99 career singles wins; and is two victories short of Olivia's mark of 196 combined wins.
• The two Babson legends share the single-season record of 32 doubles wins, set in 2023-24. Olivia owns the single-season record with 31 singles wins in 2022-23, ahead of Matia's 29 in 2023-24, and Matia has the single-season record for combined wins with 61, set in 2023-24, better than Olivia's top mark of 56 in 2024-25.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Babson was 15-2 last season and 13-2 in 2023-24 when leading after doubles and has won 73 of its last 77 matches with a lead heading into singles dating back to 2018.
• The Green and White were 7-7 against nationally ranked team last year, including postseason matches, and are 16-15 against ranked teams since 2022-23.
• The Beavers are 45-16 in dual matches going back to the start of the 2022-23 season.

UP NEXT
• The Beavers will face No. 24 NYU on February 28 in Cambridge, Mass., before heading to Brunswick, Maine on March 1 to take on No. 10 Bowdoin.