Box Score BABSON PARK, Mass.—Katie Driscoll (Easton, Conn.) rallied for a three-set victory at number three singles to help No. 10 MIT edge No. 6 Babson College, 4-3, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's tennis action on Saturday afternoon at the Babson Tennis Courts. 

Babson, which had its 10-match winning streak snapped, closes the regular season at 14-4 overall and 7-1 in conference play. MIT has won its last eight matches to improve to 15-2 overall and 8-0 in the NEWMAC while clinching its third consecutive regular season league title. 

The Beavers earned the doubles point by taking two of three matches, all of which were closely contested. Driscoll and Anastasia Samets (Ocean, N.J.) were 6-4 winners over sophomore Mia Sorrentino (Miami, Fla.) and first-year Jolie Wang (Los Altos Hills, Calif.) at number three before sophomore Alessandra Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) and first-year Elizabeth Shu (Sugar Land, Texas) answered with 7-5 victory over the Engineers' pairing of Carley Chen (San Diego, Calif.) and Chloe Zeng (Austin, Texas) at number two. 

Senior Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) and first-year Sandra Sikharulidze (Kyiv, Ukraine) rallied from deficits of 3-1 and 4-3 to clinch the point with a 6-4 triumph over Alaina Kolli (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Artemis Pados (Delray Beach, Fla.) at number one. 

Matia Cristiani recorded the first singles point of the match by downing Saina Deshpande (Pune, India) 6-2, 6-2 at number one before Sophia Yang (Irvine, Calif.) and Rayna Li (Dallas, Texas) registered straight-set victories at fourth and sixth singles, respectively, for MIT. Sikharulidze dropped the first set before coming back to defeat Zeng 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 at number two to give Babson a 3-2 edge in the match. 

The final two matches went the way of the Engineers, though, as Chen earned a hard-fought 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Beavers' first-year Tina Liu (Plantation, Fla.) at number five, while Driscoll rallied after dropping a first-set tiebreaker to edge Shu 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 6-1 at number three. 

Both teams will be back in action next Saturday hosting NEWMAC Tournament semifinal matches as second-seeded Babson will face either third-seeded Wellesley or sixth-seeded Wheaton, while top-seeded MIT will take on fourth-seeded Smith or fifth-seeded Springfield. 

MATCH NOTES
•    The Beavers have dropped six consecutive matches to MIT since recording a 6-3 victory back in April 2023. 
•    Matia Cristiani improved to 30-0 on the year in singles play with Saturday's victory while earning her 29th doubles victory of the season alongside Sikharulidze. 
•    Saturday's loss snapped Babson's 22-match winning streak when claiming the doubles point.