SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—Lauren Keller and Consecreta Rozario hit .475 and combined for 33 kills to help third-seeded and 20th-ranked MIT defeat second-seeded Babson College in four sets (25-16, 16-25, 25-15, 25-14) in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament semifinal on Saturday afternoon inside Blake Arena.
Babson, which lost for just the second time over its last six matches, slips to 24-6 on the year and now must wait until Monday afternoon to see if it receives and at-large bid to its sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament. MIT won its third consecutive match to improve to 28-4 on the year and will meet top-seeded Springfield in Sunday's conference final.
Sophomore
Isabella Allen (Williamsville, N.Y.) finished with 11 kills, senior
Erin Gray (Oakland, Calif.) contributed eight kills and junior
Lauren Gips (Winter Park, Fla.) added seven kills, five blocks and three service aces to lead the Beavers. First-year
Zoe Ackerman (Aurora, Colo.0 handed out 27 assists and to go along with three aces, while sophomore
Roz Cabuena (Kailua, Hawaii) led all players with 27 digs in the loss.
Keller led all players with 17 kills, Rozario had 16 kills and three blocks and Emily Cheng dished out 43 assists to go along with 18 digs to pace the Engineers. Ottavia Personeni recorded a team-high 24 digs and Ella Gragg led all players with four service aces in the match.
MIT hit .234 in the opening set and used a 15-5 run to break away from a 6-6 deadlock for a 1-0 lead. The Engineers were up two early in the third before the Green and White took the lead for good with a 6-1 run that sparked by a pair of aces by Gips. First-year
Natalie Molendyk (Danville, Calif.) produced a pair of kills to extend the lead to 15-11 and senior
Olivia Leinenweber (Neptune Beach, Fla.) followed a kill by Allen with an ace two points later to stretch the Babson lead to 19-13 on the way to squaring the match at a set apiece.
The Engineers dominated the third and fourth sets hitting .344 and jumping out to commanding leads in both frames. They used a 7-0 run that included two service aces by Ashley Margetts for a 13-5 advantage in third that wouldn't get closer than six the rest of the way. MIT started game four with a 9-2 burst and got three straight kills from Rozario to push its advantage to 15-7 after Babson had closed within four.
MATCH NOTES
• The Beavers are now 3-7 all-time in conference tournament matches against MIT.
• Nine of the last 10 matches between Babson and the Engineers have been decided in four or five sets.
• The Beavers have reached the NEWMAC semifinals in nine consecutive seasons and are 5-4 during this stretch.
