NCAA Division III Singles and Doubles Championships
Monday, May 25 | Singles Final - 10 a.m. | Doubles Final - 1 p.m.
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 is the top seed in the 32-player singles draw, advanced to Monday's singles championship for the first time in her career and will take on Lia Melvin (18-10) of Johns Hopkins, who rallied for a three-set win over Sikharulidze in Sunday's semifinals.
• The doubles final pits the top two duos in the country against each other as top-seeded Cristiani and Sikharulidze will face second-seeded Lindsay Eisenman and Rebecca Kong of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Eisenman and Kong are 22-2 overall and have won 11 consecutive matches.
• Cristiani and Sikharulidze have the Beavers back in the NCAA doubles final for the fourth consecutive season. Cristiani and
Olivia Soffer '25 fell in the championship match in 2023 before claiming back-to-back national titles in 2024 and 2025.
• Cristiani is the second Babson female to reach the singles and doubles finals in the same seasons after
Olivia Soffer '25 did it in 2023, and is looking to become the seventh female in Division III history (beginning in 1984) to capture singles and doubles championships in the same season.
WE MEET AGAIN
• Both of Monday's matches will be rematches from earlier in the season as Cristiani defeated Melvin 6-2, 6-1 at number one singles to help the Beavers edge Johns Hopkins 4-3 all the way back on January 31.
• Cristiani and Sikharulidze have dropped just two doubles matches on the year, but one of them was a 6-4, 6-2 defeat at the hands of Eisenman and Kong in the quarterfinals of the ITA Cup on October 17 in Rome, Ga.
ROAD TO THE FINALS | SINGLES DRAW | DOUBLES DRAW
Singles
First round: (1) Cristiani def. Katalina Wang (Case Western), 6-3, 7-5
Second Round: (1) Cristiani def. Isabele Antanavicius (Emory, 6-1, 6-4)
Quarterfinals: (1) Cristiani def. (8) Elsie Van Wieren (Middlebury), 6-3, 6-3
Semifinals: (1) Cristiani def. Serena Biria (Chicago), 6-3, 6-1
Doubles
First round: (1) Cristiani/Sikharulidze def. Addison Felts/Natalie Kim (Mary Washington), 6-3, 6-1
Quarterfinals: (1) Cristiani/Sikharulidze def. Rebecca Suarez/Mandy Reyes (Brandeis), 6-4, 6-1
Semifinals: (1) Cristiani/Sikharulidze def. Eliana Hanna/Ally Lin (WashU), 6-1, 6-2
HOW THEY GOT HERE
• Cristiani, the number one ranked player in Division III by the ITA, is a perfect 36-0 this season and has recorded 33 straight-set victories while dropping a total of just four sets in 40 matches on the year.
• The nation's fourth-ranked doubles pairing, Cristiani and Sikharulidze are 37-2 overall and enter Monday's final riding a 23-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 14-1 during her career at the NCAA Doubles Championship.
• In addition to her success in doubles, Cristiani is 9-3 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.
• Cristiani is the first player to advance 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 (116), doubles (121) and combined victories (237) earlier this season, and owns career records of 116-4 in singles and 121-10 in doubles for her career.
• Cristiani has also set new single-season records for wins in singles (36), doubles (38) and combined victories (74) during the 2025-26 campaign.
• Sikharulidze's 37 doubles wins this season are second on the program's single-season list, behind only Cristiani's 38, and the most by a first-year player in school history.
• Sikharulidze's 63 combined singles and doubles wins are the second most in program history behind Cristiani's total of 74 this season, and her 26 singles victories broke Cristiani's rookie record of 24 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.
• 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.
