CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—No. 23 Babson College dropped matches to No. 25 Tufts University and Williams College to wrap up play at the New England Challenge on Saturday afternoon inside Rockwell Cage on the campus of MIT.

The Beavers suffered a three-set (25-19, 25-13, 25-16) loss to the Jumbos and wrapped up the weekend by dropping a four-set decision (25-19, 25-15, 25-27, 25-22) to the Ephs. Babson, which lost to Middlebury on Friday night, slips to 19-5 on the year.

Tufts 3, Babson 0
Senior Martina Jankovic Chin (Zapresic, Croatia) recorded a team-high six kills, classmate Jordan Lapins (Calgary, Alberta) finished with 10 digs and juniors Ruby Reich (Atlanta, Ga.) and Caroline Applewhite (Boca Raton, Fla.) both handed out nine assists in the loss for the Beavers.

Junior Christine Audette (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) hit .364 and led all players with 10 kills and three blocks, while classmate Rileigh Farragher (Evanston, Ill.) added seven kills for the Jumbos. Senior Stephanie Lee (San Francisco, Calif.) recorded a match-high 20 digs and first-year Zoe Gregory (Woodside, Calif.) and junior Maddie Yu (San Diego, Calif.) dished out 17 and 15 assists, respectively.

Tufts (15-5) put away 14 first-set kills and took its largest lead of the stanza at 20-9 after back-to-back kills by senior Maya Lightfoot (La Jolla, Calif.) before the Green and White closed the gap late. A combined block by Jankovic Chin and senior Laura Zuloaga (Naples, Fla.) and another by first-year Isabella Allen (Williamsville, N.Y.) coupled with an ace from sophomore Tatum Stelter (Glendale, Ariz.) capped a 10-4 run before the Jumbos got a kill from Yu on their fifth set point for a 1-0 advantage.

Babson never led in game two and saw Tufts use a 14-4 run that included three kills apiece by Audette and junior Cora Cunningham (Dayton, Ohio) to build a 22-9 lead on the way to a two-set lead. Game three featured three early ties and Babson got within 15-12 on a kill by Applewhite before the Jumbos closed out the match with a 10-4 burst. Farragher had two kills and a block while Cunningham and senior Grace Legris (Minneapolis, Minn.) both added a kill and a block during the run.

Williams 3, Babson 1
Junior Lauren Gips (Orlando, Fla.) had 10 kills and sophomore Lauren Griffin (Los Altos Hills, Calif.), who was named to the all-tournament team, added nine kills for the Beavers. Reich led three setters with 24 assists and Stelter had 22 digs and a season-high seven assists in the loss.

Senior Christina Conforti (Charlestown, Mass.) led all players with 15 kills while hitting .414 and junior Marit Hoyem (Menlo Park, Calif.) added 10 kills, six digs, four blocks and three service aces for the Ephs. Fellow junior Lauren Kauppila (New York, N.Y.) registered a match-high 28 assists and sophomore Sidra Wohlwend (Henderson, Nev.) recorded a team-high 13 digs in the win.

The opening set featured nine ties and four lead changes before Williams (10-9) pulled away by scoring six of the final seven points for a 25-19 win. The Ephs never trailed in game two and took advantage of five Babson errors during a key 8-2 run that extended their lead to 21-11.

The Beavers trailed 18-12 in the third before mounting a furious rally to extend the match to a fourth set. Griffin and Zuloaga combined on a block and three kills during an 8-2 burst that tied the stanza at 20-20 and senior Lauren MacDonald (Westwood, Mass.) added a pair of kills to help erase a two-point deficit to pull even at 24-all. The Green and White took its first lead of the set at 25-24 thanks to a Williams attack error and Griffin and Zuloaga followed up a kill by Allen with consecutive kills of their own to give Babson a 27-25 victory.

The early portion of game four featured eight ties and five lead changes before the Ephs used a key four-point run to seize command. Hoyem had a kill and a pair of service aces during the spurt that turned a 13-11 deficit into a 15-13 advantage that they would not relinquish on the way to closing out the match.

Babson returns to action on Tuesday at 7 p.m. when it travels to No. 19 MIT.

TOURNAMENT NOTES
• The Beavers are 8-12 all-time in the New England Challenge, which dates back to 2015.
• Babson is now 11-4 on the year in road an neutral-court matches.
• The Beavers, who entered the weekend ranked 19th in Division III in opponent hitting percentage, saw their three foes in the New England Challenge hit a combined .226.
• Babson's three-match losing streak is its first since 2018.