Women's Volleyball 8/30/2022 12:00:00 AM

Women's Volleyball Opens 2022 Campaign in Southern California Friday

TOURNAMENT WEBSITE

SERIES HISTORY
• The Babson women's volleyball team will head to the west coast for the first time in program history to participate in the Pacific Coast Classic on Friday and Saturday.
• The Beavers will face each of their four opponents from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (SCIAC) – Cal Lutheran, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Whittier and Pomona-Pitzer –for the first time in program history.

WHAT TO KNOW
• Under the guidance of 12th-year head coach Eric Neely, the Green and White returns 12 players from a team that went 23-8 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season.
• Babson went 9-1 in NEWMAC play to claim a share of its second consecutive regular season league title.
• The Beavers have earned four straight NCAA Tournament berths going back to 2017 and have advanced to at least the second round each season, which includes reaching the regional final in 2017 and the national quarterfinals in 2018.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (0-0) brings back four of its top five attackers from a 2022 squad that posted a .212 hitting percentage.
• Senior Laura Zuloaga, an AVCA All-America honorable mention last fall, hit .301 and ranked second on the team in both kills per set (2.48) and blocks per set (0.66), classmate Jordan Lapins contributed 2.16 kills per game and fellow senior Martina Jankovic Chin averaged 1.95 kills and was third on the squad with 53 total blocks.
• Junior Caroline Applewhite (8.36 a/s) dished out 25 or more assists 11 times, while classmate Ruby Reich (7.84 a/s) finished with at least 25 assists on 10 occasions last fall.
• Sophomore Tatum Stelter played in all 31 matches as a rookie in 2021 and finished second on the team in both total digs (251) and digs per set (2.54).

SCOUTING THE REGALS
• Cal Lutheran (0-0) returns 12 players from a team that went 11-17 overall and 9-7 to finish fourth in the SCIAC.
• Senior Maci Haddad earned AVCA All-America third-team honors after hitting .365 and averaging 3.02 kills and 1.18 blocks per set last fall.
• Sophomores Kennedy Crane (2.14 k/s, 2.00 d/s) and Sophia Muller (2.13 k/s, 1.94 d/s) both put together strong rookie campaigns, while junior Tess Holbert split time at setter and dished out a team-best 4.85 assists per game.
• Junior Isabella Wade ranked fourth in the conference averaging 5.03 digs per set in 2021.

SCOUTING THE ATHENAS
• No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (0-0) returns 17 players from a squad that advanced to the NCAA Tournament semifinals and finished 31-2 in 2021.
• Junior Jenna Holmes earned AVCA All-America second-team accolades after averaging 3.53 kills and 2.84 digs per set, while senior Jackie Jones hit .249 and contributed 2.70 kills and 2.20 digs per game for the Athenas.
• Sophomore Audrey Sawyer hit .381, contributed 2.27 kills per set and finished second on the team with 64 total blocks.
• The duo of junior Georgia McGovern (7.36) and senior Spencer Hagenbuch (4.99) combined for over 12 assists per set, while sophomore Dede Carranza averaged 5.02 digs per frame.

SCOUTING THE POETS
• Whittier (0-0) brings back 14 players from a 2021 team that went 10-16 overall and finished fifth in the SCIAC at 8-8.
• Senior Kaitlin Bullock averaged 1.98 kills per set and junior Xenia Villagomez contributed 1.78 kills and 0.78 blocks per set.
• Sophomore Analise Kusleika led the team with 78 total blocks and averaged 1.16 kills and 0.99 blocks per set, while senior Della Trimble dished out 7.11 assists per frame.
• Trimble averaged 2.48 digs per set and junior Jordan Duyan-Heard contributed 1.54 for the Poets, who must replace their top two defensive specialists.

SCOUTING THE SAGEHENS
• Pomona-Pitzer (0-0) returns 12 players from a team that went 17-10 overall and finished second in the SCIAC last fall.
• Sophomore Chloe Gill averaged a team-high 3.27 kills per set and junior Paige Wilson contributed 2.33 kills and 3.36 digs per game for the Sagehens.
• Senior Grace Fan (1.57 k/s, 1.22 b/s) hit .299 and was second in the league with 112 blocks, while sophomore Kylie Mies split time at setter and dished out 4.72 assists per set.
• Senior Lauren Asato earned an AVCA All-America honorable mention after averaging a conference-best 5.64 digs per set.

POLL POSITION
• Babson received one first-place vote and finished second behind 11th-ranked MIT in the NEWMAC preseason coaches' poll, which was released on Monday.
• The Beavers also totaled 102 points in the AVCA Division III preseason poll, which was good for the second highest total among teams not in the top 25.
• Four-time defending SCIAC champion Claremont-Mudd-Scrips was picked to repeat in the league's preseason poll, while Pomona-Pitzer came in second. Cal Lutheran and Whitter placed third and fifth in the poll, respectively.

CHANGING COLORS
• A two-year starter and 2019 AVCA All-America honorable mention, Izzy Seebold joined the Beavers as a graduate transfer following a successful career at Wellesley College.
• Seebold amassed a career-high 1,101 assists to help the Blue reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a sophomore in 2019 and averaged 9.42 assists per set in 58 career matches at Wellesley.

TOURNAMENT TESTED
• The Beavers, who open the season by playing eight of their first nine matches on the road, will face eight programs this fall that participated in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
• In addition to taking on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on opening day, Babson will take on RIT and Johnson & Wales in Providence on September 10 and host Springfield on September 20.
• Four of the Beavers' final eight matches of the regular season in October also come against 2021 national tournament foes.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Six of Babson's eight losses last season came in five sets.
• The Beavers are 23-2 in the month of September going back to 2019.
• Babson is 45-1 over the last two full seasons when holding its opponents to a hitting percentage below .150.
• The Green and White is 25-6 in road and neutral-court matches dating back to 2019.

UP NEXT
• After returning home from California, the Beavers welcome Bates to Staake Gymnasium on Friday, September 9.

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