MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—First-year
Sandra Sikharulidze (Kyiv, Ukraine) secured the clinching point by winning a third-set tiebreaker at number two singles as No. 5 Babson College defeated No. 12 Middlebury College, 4-2, in the third round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday afternoon inside the Nelson Recreation Center.
Babson has won four in a row and 14 of its last 15 matches to improve to 18-4 while advancing to the national quarterfinals for the first time in program history. Middlebury sees its season come to a close at 14-7.
Trailing 1-0 after doubles, the Beavers seized control of the match by winning the first three singles contests. Senior
Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) beat seventh-ranked Elsie Van Wieren (Ann Arbor, Mich.) 6-3, 6-1 at number one, first-year
Tina Liu (Plantation, Fla.) recorded a dominating 6-2, 6-0 victory over Diya Pachamuthu (Lexington, Mass.) at number four and sophomore
Alessandra Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) rallied for a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Ren Barton (Avon, Conn.) at number three.
Elizabeth Doak (New Canaan, Conn.) registered the Panthers first singles point with a 6-4, 6-4 win over junior
Dana Kamal (Cairo, Egypt), but Sikharulidze outlasted Anna Lardner (San Anselmo, Calif.) with a hard-fought three-set victory at number two. After dropping the first set, Sikharulidze trailed 3-1 in the second and 4-1 in the third before rallying for a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) triumph by scoring the final two points of the third-set breaker.
The lone singles match still on the court at the time of decision was at number five where Babson first-year
Jolie Wang (Los Altos Hills, Calif.) led Charlotte McCann (Montclair, N.J.) 3-6, 6-1, 2-1 in the third.
Middlebury took the doubles point with a pair of dominant performances at Nos. 2-3. McCann and Ananya Annapantuala (Mason, Ohio) beat
Alessandra Cristiani and first-year
Manuela Moscoso (Quito, Ecuador) 6-0 at number two, while Barton and Pachamuthu won the final four games to post a 6-2 victory over Kamal and Wang at number three.
Matia Cristiani and Sikharulidze were locked in a 4-4 battle with Van Wieren and Lardner when the match was stopped.
Babson will now face No. 2 Chicago in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals on Monday, May 18, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
MATCH NOTES
• The Beavers are now 1-3 all-time against Middlebury and Sunday's match was the first between the teams in the postseason.
• With her victory on Sunday,
Matia Cristiani matched former teammate
Olivia Soffer's '25 single-season record of 31 singles victories.
• The Green and White has won 39 straight matches at number one singles and 37 in a row at number two singles.
• Sunday's victory was the Beavers' first when trailing after doubles since rallying to beat MIT on April 4, 2023.
