CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—Babson College senior
Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) and first-year
Sandra Sikharulidze (Kyiv, Ukraine) won each of their singles matches and combined for a straight-set victory in the quarterfinals at the NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday afternoon at the Champions Tennis Club.
Cristiani and Sikharulidze both recorded straight-set wins to secure two of the four spots in Sunday's semifinals. Top-seeded Cristiani beat eighth-seeded sophomore Elsie Van Wieren (Ann Arbor, Mich.) of Middlebury, 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the semifinals for the second time in her career, while Sikharulidze topped senior Lauren Long (Carmel, Ind.) of Washington & Lee, 6-3, 7-5.
The Beavers' duo, which is seeded first in the doubles draw, defeated senior Rebecca Suarez (New York, N.Y.) and junior Mandy Reyes (Manila, Phillippines) of Brandeis, 6-4, 6-1. Cristiani, who paired with
Olivia Soffer '25 to claim the last two NCAA doubles titles, has now reached the semifinals in four consecutive seasons.
Cristiani, who was facing Van Wieren for the third time this season, recorded back-to-back service breaks to open a 4-1 lead in the first set and won five consecutive games after going down 1-0 in the second. Van Wieren two straight games to pull within 5-3 before Cristiani closed out the match on her serve to improve to 35-0 on the season.
Deadlocked at 3-3 in the first, Sikharulidze broke long twice en route to a 6-3 victory. The players split the first eight game, which included four consecutive service breaks, before Long won four consecutive points to register her third break of the stanza to go up 5-4 in the second.
Sikharulidze answered back to break Long at deuce, went in front 6-5 with a hold in the next game and then won the second of two match points to post her third consecutive straight-set triumph.
Cristiani and Sikharulidze ended their day by beating Reyes and Suarez for the second time this season. They saw a 2-0 lead disappear before winning three straight games to go up 5-2 late in the first and then dropped just one point over their first two service games to go in front 4-0 in the second.
Cristiani will face fourth-seeded Sarena Biria of Chicago and Sikharulidze will meet Lia Melvin of Johns Hopkins in Sunday's singles semifinals beginning at 10 a.m. They will then take on Eliana Hanna and Ally Lin of WashU in the doubles semifinals at 1 p.m.
TOURNAMENT NOTES
• Cristiani, who became the first player in program history to reach 70 combined wins in a season on Saturday, is now 35-0 in singles and 37-2 in doubles this season.
• Sikharulidze has won 20 consecutive singles matches going back to January 31.
• As a doubles team, Cristiani and Sikharulidze are 21-0 this spring.
