CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—Babson College senior Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) and first-year Sandra Sikharulidze (Kyiv, Ukraine) both won a pair of singles matches and combined for another victory in doubles at the NCAA Division III Singles and Doubles Championships on Friday. 

Cristiani, who is the top seed, and Sikharulidze both advanced to the quarterfinals of the 32-player singles draw. The Beavers' duo also reached the quarterfinals in the doubles bracket and won all five of their matches on Friday in straight sets. 

Cristiani picked up a pair of hard-fought triumphs in singles beginning with a 6-3, 7-5 first round result against senior Katalina Wang (Venetia, Pa.) of Case Western Reserve. Cristiani had her serve broken twice before erasing a 3-1 deficit in the opening set, and then rallied from 4-0 down in the second to close out the win. Wang held serve to regain a 5-3 edge before Cristiani won 17 of the final 20 points in the match, which included recording a pair of service breaks, to close things out. 

Cristiani got off to a strong start in her second round match and defeated senior Izabele Antanavicius (Villanova, Pa.) of Emory 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals for the second time in her career. She won the first four games of the opening set and back-to-back deuce points with the second set tied at 4-4 to end the match and improve to 34-0 on the year.

Sikharulidze was terrific in her NCAA Championships debut, knocking off third-seeded Lindsay Eisenman (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) 6-2, 6-2 in round one and sophomore Clara Zou (Potomac, Md.) of Chicago 6-1, 6-4 in the second round. She broke Eisenman's serve four straight times to end the first and won consecutive games with the second set deadlocked at 2-2. 

Sikharulidze and Zou met for the second time in the span of five days after Monday's match in the team quarterfinals went unfinished with Babson defeating the Maroons 4-0. Sikharulidze raced out to a 4-0 lead in the first and then held serve to take a 5-4 lead in the second before breaking Zou's serve to complete the victory. 

Cristiani and Sikharulidze, who earned the top seed in the doubles draw, concluded the day with a 6-3, 6-1 win over junior Addison Felts (Norfolk, Va.) and sophomore Natalie Kim (Centreville, Va.) of Mary Washington in the first round. Felts and Kim led 3-2 midway through the first set before Cristiani and Sikharulidze won four straight games to end the first and 10 of 11 to close the match. 

Cristiani will face eighth-seeded Elsie Van Wieren of Middlebury and Sikharulidze is set to take on Lauren Long of Washington & Lee in Saturday's singles quarterfinals beginning at 11 a.m. Following singles, they will face Mandy Reyes and Rebecca Suarez of Brandeis in the doubles quarterfinals. 

TOURNAMENT NOTES
•    Cristiani is the first player in program history to reach 70 combined victories in a season in (34 singles, 36 doubles) in Babson program history. 
•    Sikharulidze passed Cristiani for the most singles wins (25) by a Babson rookie with her triumph over Zou in the second round on Friday. 
•    Thanks to Friday's victories, the Beavers have two singles players and a doubles team in the NCAA quarterfinals in the same season for the first time in school history.