NCAA Division III Singles and Doubles Championships
Friday, May 22 – Monday, May 26
Champions Tennis Club | Chattanooga, Tenn. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    Babson women's tennis senior Matia Cristiani and first-year Sandra Sikharulidze were selected to compete in the NCAA Division III Singles and Doubles Championships back on May 6. 
•    Cristiani, who will compete in both the singles and doubles championships for the fourth consecutive season, and Sikharulidze are among 32 players selected for the singles draw and 16 duos chosen to compete in doubles. 

FIRST SERVE
•    Cristiani earned the No. 1 seed in the 32-player singles draw and will meet Katalina Wang of Case Western Reserve in Friday's first round at 9 a.m., with the winner advancing to play either Eleni Lazaridou (Kenyon) or Izabele Antanavicius (Emory) at 1 p.m. 
•    Sikharulidze will face third-seeded Lindsay Eisenman of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 9 a.m., with the winner advancing to take on either Clara Zou (Chicago) or Tina She (Amherst) at 1 p.m. 
•    Cristiani and Sikharulidze also earned the No. 1 seed in the 16-team doubles draw and will face Natalie Kim and Addison Felts of Mary Washington in the first round on Friday at 3 p.m. 

SCHEDULE OF PLAY | SINGLES DRAW | DOUBLES DRAW
Friday, May 22
Singles first and second rounds, 9 a.m. 
Doubles first round, 3 p.m. 

Saturday, May 23
Singles quarterfinals, 11 a.m. 
Doubles quarterfinals, 2 p.m. 

Sunday, May 24
Singles semifinals, 10 a.m.
Doubles semifinals, 1 p.m. 

Monday, May 25
Singles final, 10 a.m.
Doubles final, 12 p.m. 

HOW THEY GOT HERE
•    Cristiani, the number one ranked player in Division III by the ITA, is a perfect 32-0 this season and has recorded 29 straight-set victories while dropping a total of just four sets in 36 matches on the year. 
•    Sikharulidze, who is 10th in the ITA Division III rankings, is 23-4 overall and is a perfect 17-0 this spring. 
•    The nation's fourth-ranked doubles pairing, Cristiani and Sikharulidze are 34-2 overall and enter Friday's first round and are riding a 20-match winning streak that dates back to October's ITA Cup. 
•    Cristiani won both the ITA New England singles title and the ITA Cup singles championship back in the fall in addition to pairing with Sikharulidze to capture the ITA New England doubles crown. 

CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE
•    Cristiani, who is a three-time ITA All-America selection in both singles and doubles, has enjoyed plenty of success during her previous three appearances at the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. 
•    Cristiani paired with Olivia Soffer '25 to win back-to-back doubles national championships in 2024 and 2025 after advancing to the title match with Soffer in 2023, and is 11-1 during her career at the NCAA Doubles Championship. 
•    In addition to her success in doubles, Cristiani is 5-3 all-time in the NCAA Singles Championship and advanced to the semifinals in 2024 and the second round in both 2023 and 2025. 

HISTORY LESSON
•    Cristiani and Soffer became the first repeat national champions in doubles since Julie Raventos and Linda Shin of Williams in 2015 and 2016, and the first players to reach the title match in three consecutive seasons since 2014. 
•    No player has advanced to the NCAA doubles final in four consecutive seasons since 2014 when Gabby Devlin of Amherst captured her fourth consecutive national championship and third alongside Jordan Brewer. 

HALL, CRISTIANI AND SIKHARULIDZE RECEIVE ITA NORTHEAST REGIONAL RECOGNITION
•    Babson second-year head coach Emma Hall was selected as the ITA Northeast Regional Coach of the Year, Cristiani was tabbed as the region's senior player of the year and Sikarhulidze was chosen as rookie of the year last Wednesday. 
•    Hall is the Beavers' first ITA Northeast Regional Coach of the Year recipient since 2015, Cristiani gave the program is second consecutive senior player of the year award after Olivia Soffer '25 was selected last May, and Sikharulidze became Babson's first regional rookie of the year since Cristiani back in 2023. 

REWRITING THE RECORD BOOK
•    Cristiani passed Soffer to became the program's all-time leader in singles (112), doubles (117) and combined victories (229) earlier this season. 
•    Cristiani has also set new single-season records for wins in singles (32), doubles (35) and combined victories (67) during the 2025-26 campaign. 
•    Sikharulidze's 34 doubles wins this season are second on the program's single-season list and most by a first-year player in school history. 
•    Sikharulidze's 57 combined singles and doubles wins are the third most in program history behind Cristiani's totals of 67 this season and 61 in 2023-24, and her 23 singles victories are just one away from Cristiani's record of 24 by a rookie achieved back in 2022-23.  

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
•    Cristiani is 12-0 this season and 16-0 over the last three years against players competing in the NCAA singles draw, while Sikharulidze is 3-0. 
•    The Beavers' top doubles pairing is 3-1 versus teams competing in the doubles draw, which includes a pair of wins over third-seeded Caitlin Bui and Eleanor Archer of WashU and a loss to second-seeded Lindsay Eisenmen and Rebecca Kong of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.