No. 7 Women's Tennis vs. No. 10 MIT
Saturday, April 25 | 12:00 p.m. 
Babson Tennis Courts | Babson Park, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 7-54 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to the 1979-80 campaign with just one win in the last 15 matches since 2015. 
• The Beavers have dropped five straight matches to the Engineers following their 6-3 victory in Babson Park back in April 2023. 
• The two teams have met in the last four and five of the last six NEWMAC Tournament finals. 

LAST MEETING
• Olivia Soffer '25 and senior Matia Cristiani recorded straight-set victories, but No. 15 Babson suffered a 4-2 loss to No. 8 MIT in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament final on May 4, 2005 the duPont Tennis Courts in Cambridge. 
• The Engineers claimed the doubles point with victories at Nos. 2 and 3. Juniors Saina Deshpande and Anastasia Samets were 6-1 winners at number three, while Jay Lu '25 and sophomore Chloe Zeng edged junior Chaniel Soffer and sophomore Alessandra Cristiani 6-4 at number two.  
• Matia Cristiani and Olivia Soffer sandwiched singles wins at numbers two and one around Deshpande's straight-set triumph at number four to even the match at 2-2. The Engineers secured the title with the final two points as senior Alaina Kolli won 6-4, 6-1 at number five and Samets rallied from 5-4 down in the second set to win 6-3, 7-5 at number six.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 7 Babson (14-3, 7-0 NEWMAC) extended its winning streak to 10 matches with a 7-0 victory over No. 14 Washington & Lee on Thursday at the Babson Tennis Courts.
• The two Cristianis, sophomore Mia Sorrentino and first-year Elizabeth Shu were all winners at both singles and doubles in the victory. After taking the doubles point with wins in two out of the three encounters, the Beavers swept the singles, including wins by sophomore Sarai Dorismond and first-year Jolie Wang.
• Matia Cristiani (29-0), ranked No. 1 in singles in Division III by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), improved to 13-0 at number one in singles in dual matches, while 11th-ranked Sikharulidze (18-4) is 12-0 in dual matches since January, including 10-0 at number two. Wang (14-5) is 8-2 in dual matches, and A. Cristiani (11-6) is 8-3 in dual matches for the Beavers.
• M. Cristiani and Sikharulidze (28-2), ranked fourth in Division III, have won 14 in a row at number one doubles going back to October. Five other players have won at least 12 matches in doubles, junior Dana Kamal (14-6), Wang (14-3), A. Cristiani (16-11), sophomore Mia Sorrentino (14-4), and Dorismond (12-4).

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• No. 10 MIT (14-2, 7-0 NEWMAC) brings a seven-match winning streak into Saturday's match following a 7-0 conference victory at Springfield on Tuesday.
• The Engineers swept all three doubles matches by 6-0 scores before taking all six singles matches in straight sets. Samets at number four (6-0, 6-0), sophomore Anselma Petrie at number six (6-0, 6-1) and first-year Carley Chen at number two (6-3, 6-0) clinched the team victory and junior Nishi Gandra at number five (6-1, 6-2), first-year Rayna Li at number three (6-0, 6-1), and Deshpande at number one (6-2, 6-3) completed the shutout.
• Deshpande (17-8) has won eight of her last nine matches at number one singles, Zeng (10-7) was a winner in four straight and 8 of 10 at number two, and first-year Katie Driscoll (17-6) won 10 of her last 12 matches at number three. Chen (13-6) is 6-3 at number four and Li (16-3) has won 10 straight matches, mostly at number six.
• Kolli and Pados are 18-5 in doubles and have won their last seven at number one while Samets and Driscoll have won seven of their last nine at number three doubles.

BABSON VS. THE NEWMAC
• The Beavers are 33-5 in regular season matches against NEWMAC opponents since the start of the 2021-22 season, with three losses to MIT and a pair to Wellesley.
• Babson has won all seven of its conference matches this season by a combined score of 46-3 while MIT has won its seven encounters by a 48-1 count.

HOME SWEET HOME
• The Green and White are 7-0 at home this spring and 26-1 at the Babson Tennis Courts going back to May 3, 2023. 
• Babson has outscored its opponents 45-4 in its six home victories this season.

RUGGED SLATE OF OPPONENTS
• Saturday's match will be the 12th match this spring versus teams in the top 36 in the most recent ITA Division III rankings. 
• The Beavers are 8-3 thus far this season against ranked teams, with their only losses coming to No. 2 Washington University (4-2), No. 4 Wesleyan (4-2) and No. 13 Johns Hopkins (4-3) on their spring break trip to South Carolina in March.

REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS
• Matia Cristiani has solidified her spot in the Babson women's tennis record books and is now the program's all-time leader in singles, doubles and combined wins.
• Cristiani's 109 wins in singles, 112 victories in doubles and 221 combined triumphs surpassed the marks set by Olivia Soffer '25, who won 99 times in singles and 97 times in doubles from 2021-25. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Babson is a perfect 17-0 at number one doubles and both number one and two singles this season.
• The Green and White are 12-3 at number five and 9-4 at number six singles.
• The Beavers are 14-0 on the year and have won 22 consecutive matches when leading after doubles. 

UP NEXT
• The Beavers will receive a first-round bye in next week's NEWMAC Tournament and will host a semifinal match next Saturday.