Babson College seniors Olivia Soffer (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) captured their second consecutive NCAA Division III Women’s Doubles Championship on Tuesday with a commanding 6-2, 6-2 victory over Middlebury College’s top-seeded pair, Nina Farhat (Southborough, Mass.) and Sahana Raman (Acton, Mass.).
The third-seeded Babson duo extended their winning streak to 17 matches, finishing the season with an impressive 26-2 overall record. Their win also avenged one of only two losses this season—Middlebury had beaten them 6-0 earlier on March 19.
Soffer and Cristiani made history last year by earning Babson’s first national title in any women’s sport. With this repeat victory, they become the first Division III women’s doubles team to win back-to-back national titles since Williams College’s Julie Raventos and Linda Shin in 2015 and 2016.
In Tuesday’s final, Soffer and Cristiani took control early. After the teams split the first two games, the Babson pair won two straight deciding points to go up 3-1. Cristiani held serve after trailing 40-30, and the duo broke Middlebury’s serve next—capitalizing on a double fault—to gain a key advantage.
Although Farhat and Raman fought back to make it 4-2, Cristiani held serve again and then broke Farhat for the second time to seal the first set.
The second set saw both teams hold serve through three games, but Soffer broke the tie with a sharp cross-court backhand to go up 3-1. The Panthers briefly responded with a service break, but Babson quickly regained momentum. Cristiani fired a forehand winner, and Soffer followed with a break-point winner to go up 4-2.
Cristiani then held serve, and the match ended with a double fault from Middlebury, giving Babson a 6-2 second-set win and the championship.
Farhat and Raman closed their season with a 30-4 record.
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