CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—No. 5 Babson College saw its NCAA Tournament run come to an end with a 4-1 loss to No. 3 Washington University (Mo.) in the national semifinals on Tuesday night at the Champions Tennis Club.
Babson, which suffered just its second loss in the last 17 matches going back to March, sees its historic season come to an end at 19-5. WashU, the defending Division III national champions, improves to 21-3 on the season and will have a chance to go for a second consecutive title when it faces No. 4 Wesleyan in Thursday's final.
The Beavers picked up the first point of the match with a pair of victories in doubles. Senior
Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) and first-year
Sandra Sikharulidze (Kyiv, Ukraine), who are ranked fourth in Division III responded to an early service break by winning six consecutive games to defeat the nation's top-ranked doubles pairing of junior Eleanor Archer (Amarillo, Texas) and sophomore Caitlin Bui (Bayside, N.Y.) 6-1 at number one.
The Green and White secured the doubles point at number three as junior
Dana Kamal (Cairo, Egypt) and first-year
Jolie Wang (Los Altos Hills, Calif.) beat the Bears' duo of sophomore Samantha Slowik (Durham, N.C.) and first-year Lily Brecknock (Oak Park, Ill.) 6-3. The teams traded early service breaks and split the first six games before Kamal and Wang won the final three games.
Babson's duo of sophomore
Alessandra Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) and first-year
Elizabeth Shu (Sugar Land, Texas) also held a 4-3 lead over 10th-ranked senior Eliana Hanna (La Canada, Calif.) and sophomore Ally Lin (Katy, Texas) at number two doubles when the point was clinched.
WashU flipped the momentum of the match by winning the first set in all six singles matches on the way to recording straight-set victories at Nos. 3-6. Bui, who is ranked 21st nationally, picked the first point with a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Shu at number three and senior Nina Moravek (Gig Harbor, Wash.) followed with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Wang at number six.
The Bears secured their final two points with hard-fought victories in second-set tiebreakers. Senior Amber Edmonds (Bellevue, Wash.) was a 6-0, 7-6 (7-5) winner over Babson first-year
Tina Liu (Plantation, Fla.) at number five, while Lin outlasted
Alessandra Cristiani 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) moments later at number four.
Matia Cristiani, the top-ranked singles player in the country, held a slim 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 1-0 lead over Hanna, who is ranked fifth, at number one, while 10th-ranked Sikharulidze and No. 19 Archer were deadlocked at 3-3 in the third after splitting the first two sets at number two.
Matia Cristiani and Sikharulidze are set to begin play in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships beginning on Friday morning in Chattanooga.
MATCH NOTES
• Babson is now 1-2 all-time against WashU, which includes a 4-2 loss to the Bears back on March 15 of this year.
• The Beavers set a new single-season record with their 19 wins and became the first team from the NEWMAC to advance to the NCAA semifinals.
• Prior to Tuesday, the Green and White had been 14-0 this season when winning at number three doubles.
•
Matia Cristiani ended her dual-match career with a perfect 63-0 record in singles with all of the victories coming at either number one or two.
• Thanks to the victory by Cristiani and Sikharulidze on Tuesday night, the Beavers have now won 40 straight matches at number one doubles.
