No. 19 Women's Tennis
vs. No. 24 NYU | Saturday, February, 28 | 10 a.m. | Cambridge, Mass.
at No. 10 Bowdoin | Sunday, March 1 | 12 p.m. | Brunswick, Maine

WHAT TO KNOW
•    Exactly four weeks after upsetting then-No. 7 Johns Hopkins, the Babson women's tennis begins a three-week stretch that includes five matches against top-25 teams on Saturday morning.
•    The Beavers are set to face No. 24 NYU on the campus of MIT in Cambridge to begin the weekend before heading north to Brunswick, Maine, to take on No. 10 Bowdoin on Sunday. 

SERIES HISTORY
vs. NYU
•    Babson is 3-0 all-time versus the Violets in a series that dates back to 2002.
•    The Beavers were 6-3 winners in April 2022 and then got both singles and doubles victories from Olivia Soffer '25, senior Matia Cristiani and Elena Keitt to defeat NYU, 7-2, on April 15, 2023, in Babson Park. 

vs. Bowdoin
•    Babson is 0-4 all-time against the Polar Bears in a series that dates back to the 1994-95 season.
•    Soffer and Cristiani recorded an 8-6 win at number one doubles and recorded straight-set singles matches at Nos. 1 and 2, but the Beavers fell to Bowdoin 6-3 on March 15, 2024, in Claremont, Calif. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    No. 9 Babson (2-0) opened the spring portion of its schedule by upsetting then-No. 7 Johns Hopkins, 4-3, back on February 28. 
•    Cristiani and first-year Sandra Sikharulidze were victories at number one doubles and then picked up wins in the top two singles flights, while first-year Elizabeth Shu recorded a 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) victory at number three singles for the clinching point as the Beavers avenged a loss to the Blue Jays in the second round of last year's NCAA Tournament. 
•    Cristiani (17-0) is currently number one in the ITA Division III singles rankings, first-year Tina Liu (8-3), who advanced to the ITA New England singles quarterfinals, is ranked 34th and Sikharulidze enters the weekend at 7-4. 
•    Cristiani and Sikharulidze are ranked ninth nationally in doubles and boast a 16-2 record on the year, sophomores Alessandra Cristiani and Mia Sorrentino are 10-2, and the pairing of junior Dana Kamal and first-year Manuela Moscoso went 7-1 in the fall. 
 
SCOUTING THE VIOLETS
•    No. 24 NYU (2-0) wrapped up an opening-weekend sweep by defeating Union, 6-1, last Sunday. 
•    Victoria Wang, Visnja Gusavac, Sophia Yang and Siona Vallabhaneni all recorded victories in both singles and doubles against the Garnet Chargers following last Saturday's 7-0 triumph over Rensselaer. 
•    No. 13 Wang, who advanced to the final of the ITA Northeast Regional Championships, is 9-4 overall and 2-0 at number one singles, Yang is 5-2 overall with two wins at number three and Vallabhaneni is 4-1 in all matches and 2-0 at number four singles. 
•    The pairing of Vallabhaneni and Norah Staunton is 2-0 at third doubles and 4-2 overall, while NYU's number one pairing of Yang and Gusavac and its number two duo of Wang and Kast are both 2-0 to begin the spring. 

SCOUTING THE POLAR BEARS 
•    No. 10 Bowdoin (0-0) returns eight players from a team that finished 17-6 and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2025. 
•    Zoe Sun, who is ranked 29th in Division III singles after reaching the ITA New England semifinals, went 14-3 last season and tied for the team lead in wins with Suzanna Pogorelec, who went 14-7 overall and won six matches a piece at both number two and three singles. 
•    Cara Hung went 4-5 at number one singles last spring, Caroline Stuhlfaut was 9-8 at number one doubles and the pairing of Bella Hartung and Sun finished last year with a 12-4 record at number two doubles. 

MORE HISTORY FOR MATIA
•    With her victories in singles and doubles against Johns Hopkins last month, Cristiani matched former teammate Olivia Soffer's '25 program record of 196 combined wins. 
•    Cristiani, who already ranks first on Babson's all-time list with 99 doubles wins, needs two more singles victories to match Soffer's school record of 99 set last year. 

MOVIN' ON UP
•    Babson, which began the year at No. 14 in the Division III poll, moved up five spots to No. 9, which matched the highest ranking in program history. 
•    The Beavers were also ranked ninth in the final regular season poll of the 2022-23 season.  

TOUGH TESTS AWAIT
•    Babson is in the midst of a stretch that sees it play six consecutive teams top-25 teams to begin the spring. 
•    After facing NYU and Bowdoin this weekend, the Beavers will face No. 1 Washington University (Mo.) on March 15, No. 6 Wesleyan on March 17 and is set for a rematch against No. 12 Johns Hopkins on March 18 to conclude its trip to Hilton Head, S.C.
•    The Green and White also will face No. 23 Brandeis, No. 17 Williams, and No. 31 Skidmore between April 1-11, and winds up the regular season against No. 21 Wellesley, No. 19 Washington & Lee, and No. 8 MIT between April 19-25.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    Babson is 16-2 going back to the start of last season when winning the doubles point. 
•    The Beavers are 8-7 versus nationally-ranked foes since the beginning of the 2024-25 campaign.
•    The Green and White has won 22 consecutive matches at number one singles and 17 in a row at number two singles dating back to last year. 

UP NEXT
•    The Beavers will play the first of three matches in Hilton Head, S.C., on March 15.