CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — First-year Sandra Sikharulidze (Kyiv, Ukraine) and junior Dana Kamal (Cairo, Egypt) won matches at both doubles and singles and Kamal posted the decisive victory at number six singles as No. 8 Babson College defeated No. 7 MIT, 4-1, in the championship match of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's tennis tournament Sunday afternoon at the DuPont Tennis Courts.

With the victory, Babson (16-4) bounced back from a 4-3 loss to MIT in the regular season finale a week ago to capture its first conference championship since 2014 and third in program history. MIT (16-3) had a nine-match winning streak snapped and saw its streak of eight straight NEWMAC tournament titles broken. Both teams are expected to receive NCAA Division III Tournament berths when the bracket is announced on Monday.

MIT drew first blood when first-year Carley Chen (San Diego, Calif.) and sophomore Chloe Zeng (Austin, Texas) defeated sophomore Alessandra Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) and first-year Elizabeth Shu (Sugar Land, Texas) at second doubles, 6-3. Babson evened the doubles score at 1-1 with a 7-5 victory by Kamal and senior Grace Starcher (Morristown, N.J.) over first-year Katie Driscoll (Easton, Conn.) and junior Anastasia Samets (Ocean, N.J.) at number three.

The Beavers clinched the doubles point when Sikharulidze and senior Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador), who are ranked third in Division III, registered a break in the final game to take a 7-5 decision over seniors Alaina Kolli (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Artemis Pados (Delray Beach, Fla.) in the top doubles flight.

Sikharulidze extended the Babson lead to 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Zeng at number two singles. Shu and Chen traded straight-set singles wins for the two teams as Shu downed Driscoll at number three, 6-2, 6-2, and Chen knocked off first-year Tina Liu (Plantation, Fla.) at number five, 6-3, 6-1, putting the Beavers up, 3-1.

Kamal (right), who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, clinched the Babson victory with a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over first-year Rayna Li (Dallas, Texas) at number six.

Babson held the lead in the remaining two matches when action was stopped, as Matia Cristiani was up on junior Saina Deshpande (Pune, India) at number one, 6-2, 5-4, and Alessandra Cristiani led first-year Sophia Yang (Irvine, Calif.) at number four, 7-5, 4-2.

The teams will learn their first-round opponents and sites when the NCAA tournament field is announced at 12:30 p.m. on Monday at 12 p.m. on ncaa.com.

MATCH NOTES
• Babson is 8-55 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to the 1979-80 campaign after posting its first win over the Engineers since 2023 and just the second win in the last 17 matches since 2015.
• Sunday's match marked the fifth consecutive season and seventh time since 2018 that the teams have met in the NEWMAC Tournament final. The Green and White registered its first win over MIT in Cambridge since the 2003 final.
• The Beavers are 10-4 versus nationally-ranked foes this season, which includes five top-15 wins.
• Babson owns winning streaks of 38 matches at number one singles, 35 matches at number two singles and 37 matches at number one doubles. 
• Matia Cristiani improved her doubles record this season to 32-2, matching the program record for doubles wins held by former teammate Olivia Soffer '25 set back in 2023-24, and she broke her own single-season record for combined singles and doubles victories set in 2023-24 with her 62nd triumph this season.