No. 7 Women's Tennis vs. No. 38 Wellesley
NEWMAC Tournament Semifinal
Saturday, May 2 | 12 p.m.
Babson Tennis Courts | Babson Park, Mass.
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 16-34 all-time versus the Blue in a series that dates back to 1989.
• The Beavers have won six of the last seven matches in the series and are 13-4 against Wellesley since 2015.
• The Green and White has been especially good at home versus Wellesley, recording seven consecutive victories since 2018.
POSTSEASON HISTORY
• Babson is 7-7 all-time against Wellesley in the conference playoffs and Saturday's match marks the ninth time the teams will met in the NEWMAC semifinals going back to the fall of 2014.
• The Beavers have won five straight and seven of their last eight conference tournament matches versus the Blue, which includes a 5-0 triumph in 2024 and a 4-0 road victory last spring.
LAST MEETING
• The Beavers swept all three doubles matches and senior
Matia Cristiani and first-years
Sandra Sikharulidze,
Elizabeth Shu and
Jolie Wang all recorded victories in both singles and doubles to help the Beavers defeat Wellesley, 6-1, on April 19 in Babson Park.
• Sophomore
Alessandra Cristiani also registered a singles win for Babson, defeating Kriti Sarav 6-1, 6-0 at number five.
• The Blue picked up its lone point of the match at number four singles where Sophie Buttorf downed
Tina Liu 6-1, 6-2.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Second-seeded and seventh-ranked Babson (14-4) had its 10-match winning streak halted in last Saturday's regular season finale when it suffered a 4-3 loss to No. 10 MIT.
• The pairings of Sikharulidze and
Matia Cristiani (No. 1) and Shu and
Alessandra Cristiani (No. 2) helped secure the doubles point, and
Matia Cristiani and Sikharulidze stayed unbeaten versus conference foes in the top two singles flights for the Beavers, who dropped three of the final four singles matches in straight sets.
•
Matia Cristiani is 30-0 overall this spring and 14-0 at number one singles, Sikharulidze (19-2) is 11-0 at number two, Shu is 7-2 with three wins apiece at two and three singles, and Wang is 14-6 overall and 8-3 in dual matches.
•
Matia Cristiani and Sikharulidze are 29-2 in all doubles matches and 14-0 at number one, Shu and
Alessandra Cristiani (6-3) have won four consecutive matches, and Wang and sophomore
Sarai Dorismond are 9-2 this spring.
SCOUTING THE BLUE
• Third-seeded and 38th-ranked Wellesley (13-5) booked its 20th straight appearance in the NEWMAC semifinals thanks to a 4-0 win over sixth-seeded Wheaton in Tuesday's quarterfinals.
• Nandini Patel, Luna Bian and Dalia Khera all recorded straight-set victories in singles after the pairings of Bian and Sarav and Patel and Rianna Mariotti breezed to 6-1 victories at Nos. 2-3 doubles for the Blue, which has won its last three matches.
• Suzanne Xu is 8-9 overall and 8-5 at number one singles, Sofia Corte-Real is 5-5 at number two, Bian (13-6) owns a 7-2 record at number four and Buttorff is 16-3 in all matches and enters the weekend riding a nine-match winning streak.
• Xu and Pak are 8-5 at number one doubles, Bian and Sarav are 13-3 with two straight wins at number two and Mariotti and Patel have gone 5-2 overall and 4-2 at number three doubles this spring.
BEAVERS IN THE POSTSEASON
• Babson is 9-10 all-time in the semifinal round of the NEWMAC Tournament but has advanced to seven consecutive conference finals going back to 2018.
• The Beavers have won five straight semifinal matches since 2018 and are 8-1 dating back to the fall of 2014.
• The Green and White has won its last five conference semifinal matches at home and has won its last 10 NEWMAC Tournament contests in Babson Park dating back to 2013.
• Babson has captured NEWMAC Tournament championships in 2003 and 2014.
REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS
•
Matia Cristiani, who already became the program's all-time leader in singles (110), doubles (113) and combined victories (223) earlier this season, needs one more singles win to match former teammate Olvia Soffer's '25 record of 31 set back in 2022-23, and two more doubles triumphs to match Soffer's mark of 32 achieved in 2023-24.
• Matia also is two wins shy of matching her own single-season record of 61 combined victories set during the 2023-24 campaign.
ANOTHER TOUGH TEST
• Saturday's semifinal match will be Babson's 13th this season against teams ranked in the ITA Top 40.
• The Beavers are 8-4 versus nationally-ranked foes this season, which includes four top-15 wins.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Last Saturday's loss was the first this season and snapped a run of 22 consecutive wins for the Beavers when claiming the doubles point.
• Babson owns winning streaks of 38 matches at number one singles, 33 matches at number two singles and 35 matches at number one doubles entering Saturday's semifinal.
• The Green and White is 12-0 this season when winning at both number five singles and number three doubles.
UP NEXT
• The winner of Saturday's semifinal will take on either top-seeded and 10th-ranked MIT or fourth-seeded Smith in Sunday's 12 p.m. NEWMAC Tournament final.
