ORLANDO, Fla.—Babson College sophomore Olivia Soffer (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and first-year Matia Cristiani (San Salvador, El Salvador) finished the season as the national runner-up in singles and doubles at the NCAA Division III Championships on Monday at the USTA National Campus.

Soffer suffered a 6-2, 6-2 loss to second-seeded Angie Zhou of Pomona-Pitzer in Monday's morning's singles final. Soffer and Cristiani later dropped a hard-fought 6-4, 6-2 decision to Katherine Petty and Brooke Despriet of Sewanee in the doubles championship match.

Despite the setbacks, the runner-up finishes are the best in program history for the Beavers. Soffer reached the singles final as the top seed after reaching the quarterfinals as the program's first NCAA Championship selection last May. Cristiani and Soffer made history this spring as Babson's first doubles pairing to participate in the national tournament.

Zhou, who lost in last year's NCAA singles final, jumped out to a 2-0 lead and recorded her second break point of the opening set to extend her advantage to 4-1. Soffer held serve to get back within 5-2 before Zhou won the next game to close out the set.

Zhou dropped just one point in two service games and broke Soffer three times to take a 5-0 lead in the second. Soffer responded with her first break of the match and held serve to cut her deficit to 5-2 before Zhou finished the match on serve to claim the Sagehens' fourth singles national title and first since 2008.

Soffer and Cristiani and the Sewanee duo of Petty and Despriet traded a pair of breaks apiece as the Beavers took advantage of two double faults to pull even at 4-4 in the opening set. The Beavers battled back from love-40 to get to deuce before dropping the ensuing game and the Tigers held serve to secure the first set.

Petty and Despriet secured a pair of breaks on the way to building a 3-0 lead in the second only to see Soffer and Cristiani respond by winning back-to-back games to get within 3-2. The Tigers erased a 15-30 deficit with three straight points to push the margin back to 4-2 and then recorded their third break of the set for a 5-2 edge.

TOURNAMENT NOTES
• Soffer finished the season with an overall record of 31-2 and set new single-season records for both singles and combined singles and doubles (54) victories.
• The duo of Soffer and Cristiani went 23-4 together in doubles in Cristiani set a new single-season record with 24 doubles wins on the year.
• By virtue of their success in Orlando, Soffer and Cristiani will be the first two players in school history to earn ITA All-America honors in both singles and doubles.