Women's Volleyball 10/30/2022 12:00:00 AM

Women's Volleyball Hosts Clark in NEWMAC Quarterfinals Tuesday Night

Women's Volleyball vs. Clark
NEWMAC Tournament Quarterfinals
Tuesday, November 1 | 7 p.m.
Staake Gymnasium | Babson Park, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 17-20 all-time against Clark in a series that dates back to 1977.
• The Beavers have won five straight and 11 of their last 13 matches overall versus the Cougars since 2011.
• The Green and White has been victorious in 10 of its last 11 contests against Clark inside Staake Gymnasium.

POSTSEASON HISTORY
• The Beavers are 2-0 all-time against Clark in NEWMAC Tournament matches.
• Babson was a 3-0 winner over the Cougars in the 2014 quarterfinals and also recorded a three-set sweep over Clark in the 2015 NEWMAC final in Cambridge, Mass.

LAST MEETING
• Senior Martina Jankovic Chin and junior Lauren Gips combined for 15 kills while hitting .652 as the Beavers cruised to a three-set victory (25-19, 25-13, 25-10) over Clark on October 1 in Babson Park.
• Senior Jordan Lapins added five kills and eight digs, while graduate student Izzy Seebold finished with 21 assists and three service aces for Babson, which hit .319 in the win.
• Claudia Rivera had four kills and four aces, while Margarita Perez Maza added 11 assists and six digs to lead the Cougars.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Second-seeded Babson (19-7) concluded the regular season with a four-set loss to Smith on Saturday inside Staake Gymnasium.
• Jankovic Chin registered a career-high 17 kills and Seebold finished with 40 assists and 10 digs for the Beavers, who have dropped back-to-back home matches for just the second time since 2015.
• First-year Isabella Allen is fifth in the conference averaging 2.87 kills per set, Gips ranks among the top 10 in the league in kills per set (2.74), blocks per set (0.86) and hitting percentage (.326), and Jankovic Chin is contributing 2.19 kills and is second on the team with 42 total blocks.
• Seebold is handing out a NEWMAC-best 10.00 assists per set, while first-year Roz Cabuena (4.61) and sophomore Tatum Stelter (3.42) rank sixth and 12th, respectively, in the conference in digs per set.

SCOUTING THE COUGARS
• Seventh-seeded Clark (12-15) secured its spot in the NEWMAC Tournament by rallying for a five-set at Wheaton on Saturday.
• Rivera and Victoria Pastor recorded 14 kills apiece, Camille Flurry added seven kills and six blocks, and Marimo Oka led all players with 34 digs for the Cougars, who overcame 70 kills by the Lyons.
• Rivera ranks fourth in the conference in kills per set (3.18), Pastor is contributing 2.35 kills while hitting .220, and Flurry is averaging 1.39 kills per set and is tied for first on the team with 63 total blocks.
• Perez Maza (4.01) and sophomore Yvanna Torres (5.08) have combined to dish out 9.09 assists per set, while Oka ranks sixth in the league averaging 4.50 digs per set.

TOURNAMENT TESTED
• Lapins has played in seven postseason matches at Babson and is averaging 2.67 kills per set while hitting .229.
• Zuloaga has averaged 1.67 kills per set in eight conference tournament and NCAA Tournament contests going back to 2019.
• Senior Lauren MacDonald averaged 1.53 kills and 1.07 blocks per set in three postseason outings last season.

PLAYOFF SUCCESS
• Babson has captured four of the last seven NEWMAC Tournament championships (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019) and has made seven consecutive semifinal appearances during this stretch.
• The Beavers have gone 13-3 overall in the conference playoffs during this run, which includes a 7-1 mark at home.

BEAVER BITES
• Gips has recorded seven or more kills in 10 of her last 11 matches and is averaging 2.81 kills per set during this stretch.
• Stelter is averaging 4.44 digs per set over the last 10 contests and has served up at least one ace in 12 consecutive outings.
• Seebold currently owns the highest assist per set total in single-season program history (10.00) and ranks 14th in Division III.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
• Zuloaga, who ranks first in Babson history in career hitting percentage (.334), has 558 career kills and needs just four to pass Jill Conrad '03 for 18th place on the all-time list.
• Seebold has 650 assists this fall, which ranks 13th on the program's single-season list.

RETURNING JUST IN TIME
• Cabuena, who had missed 13 of the Beavers' last 15 matches, made her first appearance since October 4 on Saturday finishing with a team-high 16 digs in the loss to Smith.
• Junior Lulu McShane also returned to action following a four-match absence and had six kills and one block over the final two sets against the Pioneers.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 16-0 this season when winning the opening set.
• Babson is 13-0 this year and 77-2 going back to 2018 when hitting .200 or better.
• The Green and White is 16-0 when holding its opponents to a hitting percentage of .150 or less but just 3-7 when they finish above this mark.
• The Beavers are 6-1 this fall in Tuesday night matches.
• Babson is 15-2 this fall when recording more service aces than its opponents.

UP NEXT
• The winner of Tuesday's match will take on either third-seeded Springfield or sixth-seeded Coast Guard in a NEWMAC Tournament semifinal at MIT on Saturday afternoon.

Print Friendly Version