NATICK, Mass. – No. 39 Wellesley College tennis fell 4-0 at No. 8 Babson College in the NEWMAC Women's Tennis Championship Semifinals on Saturday. The Blue finished the season with a 13-6 record as a team.
The Beavers (15-4) now advance to the Finals to face off against No. 1 seed MIT tomorrow.
Babson started by taking all three lines of doubles for the 1-0 lead.
At No. 1 doubles, senior Emilee Pak (Chicago, Ill.) and junior Suzanne Xu (Boyds, Md.) fell to the No. 3 ranked team of senior Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) and first-year Sandra Sikharulidze (Kyiv, Ukraine), 6-3.
Babson sophomore Alessandra Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) and first-year Elizabeth Shu (Sugar Land, Texas) defeated junior Kriti Sarav (Chicago, Ill.) and first-year Luna Bian (Buffalo Grove, Ill.), 6-2, at No. 2 doubles.
Sophomore Mia Sorrentino (Miami, Fla.) and first-year Jolie Wang (Los Altos Hills, Calif.) completed the sweep at No. 3 doubles, winning a 6-4 set over sophomores Rianna Mariotti (Forest Hills, N.Y.) and Nandini Patel (Phoenix, Ariz.).
Shu increased the Babson lead to 2-0 at No. 3 singles by defeating Patel, 6-2 6-1.Â
No. 11 ranked Sikharulidze matched the same scoreline at the No. 2 spot over Wellesley sophomore Sofia Corte-Real (Stamford, Conn.).
Wang closed out the match at No. 6 singles, beating Sarav with 6-4 and 6-1 sets.
At the time of the match's conclusion, the No. 1 singles player in Division III, M. Cristiani, was up 6-2, 4-3 on Xu at No. 1. A. Cristiani led 3-0 on Bian at No. 4 and first-year Tina Liu (Plantation, Fla.) was up 3-2 on sophomore Sophie Buttorff (Tacoma, Wash.).
