Box Score BLUFFTON, S.C. — Senior Kamila Wong (Palo Alto, Calif.) and sophomore Ava Li (Forest Hills, N.Y.) won matches in both singles and doubles as No. 12 Johns Hopkins University won the rematch over No. 9 Babson College, 4-3, in a tight women's tennis match at Bluffton High School.
The Beavers, who defeated Hopkins by the same score back on January 31 in Wellesley, Mass., dropped their third straight match to a nationally-ranked opponent and fell to 4-3 on the season. The Blue Jays improved to 2-3 overall.
Senior
Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) and first-year
Sandra Sikharulidze (Kyiv, Ukraine) were double winners for the Beavers and first-year
Jolie Wang (Los Altos Hills, Calif.) earned a point with a win at sixth singles.
Wong and Li teamed up for a win at number two doubles for the Blue Jays and then won singles matches at three and four, respectively. Sophomore Sahana Madala (Frontenac, Mo.) and first-year Claire Loftus (Rochester, Minn.) helped Hopkins win capture the doubles point with a win at number three, and junior Sydney Langer (Short Hills, N.J.) posted a singles win at number five in the victory.
Matia Cristiani and Sikharulidze captured the number one doubles encounter with a 6-3 verdict over juniors Lia Melvin (Joppa, Md.) and Sophia Kim (Hinsdale, Ill.). The Blue Jays secured the point with victories by Wong and Li at number two and Madala and Loftus at number three.
As they did in all three Babson matches this week, Matia Cristiana and Sikharulidze followed up their doubles win with triumphs in the top two singles flights. Matia, ranked No. 1 in Division III in singles, improved to 22-0 on the year with a win at number one over Kim, and Sikharulidze improved to 12-4 with a victory over Melvin at number two.
The Blue Jays closed out the triumph with straight-set victories by Wong, Li and Langer at three, four and five, respectively. Babson got its final point when Wang defeated first-year Isabel He (Spring, Texas) to round out the results at number six, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Babson will resume New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) competition at Smith on Friday, March 27 in Northampton, Mass. Hopkins returns to action on Friday, March 20 versus 15th-ranked Tufts at the Natalie Pitts Memorial Invitational in Newport News, Va.
