Women's Volleyball vs. Stevenson
NCAA Tournament | Ithaca Regional | First Round
Thursday, November 16 | 4:30 p.m.
Ben Light Gymnasium | Ithaca, N.Y.
WHAT TO KNOW
• Babson earned one of 20 Pool C at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament and is one of eight teams set to battle it out in the Ithaca Regional beginning on Thursday.
REGIONAL SCHEDULE – FIRST ROUND
No. 6 NYU (29-4) vs. Eastern Naz (28-2), 11:30 a.m.
Eastern (27-3) vs. Tufts (14-10), 2 p.m.
Babson (24-6) vs. Stevenson (22-7), 4;30 p.m.
No. 21 Ithaca (25-4) vs. Framingham State (21-10)m 7 p.m.
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson and Stevenson will meet for the first time on Thursday afternoon.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (24-6) enters the NCAA Tournament following a 3-1 loss to No. 20 MIT in last Saturday's NEWMAC semifinals.
• Sophomore
Isabella Allen recorded a team-high 11 kills, first-year
Zoe Ackerman dished out 27 assists and sophomore
Roz Cabuena led all players with 27 digs for the Beavers, who hit just .091 in the loss.
• Gray (3.02 k/s) has registered at least eight kills in six consecutive matches, Gips is averaging 2.47 kills and a team-high 1.23 blocks per set while hitting .365, and senior
Lulu McShane is contributing 2.15 kills per set to go along with a .264 hitting percentage.
• Ackerman (7.24 a/s) is handing out 8.55 assists over the last five matches, Cabuena is averaging a team-high 5.29 digs per set and junior
Tatum Stelter is contributing 2.55 digs per set and leads the squad with 56 service aces.
SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS
• Stevenson (22-7) has won four of its last five matches but is coming off a 3-0 loss to Eastern in the MAC Commonwealth final last Saturday.
• Rileigh Kimball recorded eight kills and nine digs, Kyle DesLauriers added seven kills and Kayla Vaeth tied for match-high honors with 17 digs for the Mustangs, who hit just .086 in the loss.
• Kimball is averaging 2.90 kills and 2.75 digs per set, conference co-player of the year Darian Dildy (2.50 k/s, 1.10 b/s) ranks first in Division III hitting .437 and DesLauriers is contributing 2.10 kills and 2.63 digs per set.
• Makala Thompson and Samantha Simmers have combined to dish out 9.12 assists per set, while Vaeth is averaging a team-high 4.78 digs per set on the year.
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
• The Beavers are making their sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and the program's eighth overall going back to 2014.
• The Green and White reached the second round of the Medford Regional in 2022 and has appeared in a pair of regional finals (2017, 2018) and reached the national quarterfinals for the first time in school history in 2018.
• Babson is 7-0 all-time in NCAA Tournament first-round matches, which includes a three-set victory over Swarthmore last year.
• Stevenson advanced to its first and only NCAA regional final back in 2013.
ONE THING IN COMMON
• The Beavers and Mustangs share just one common opponent in Stockton (N.J.).
• Babson defeated the Osprey in three sets (25-15, 25-22, 25-20) at the NYU Tournament on September 9, while Stevenson also recorded a 3-0 win (25-10, 25-23, 25-20) at home on October 7.
GIPS, CABUENA COLLECT ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
• Gips secured a spot on the All-NEWMAC first team for the second consecutive season and Cabuena was named to the all-league second team for the first time when the conference announced its postseason awards on Wednesday.
• Gips ranks first in the league in blocks per set, second in hitting percentage and seventh in points per set, while Cabuena ranks second in digs per set and eighth in total digs despite missing 10 matches on the year.
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
• Babson has now been shipped to New York for its opening weekend regional for the third time in its last six NCAA Tournament appearances going back to 2017.
• In 2017, the Beavers defeated Vassar and Clarkson before falling to Ithaca in four sets in the regional final.
• In 2021, Babson earned a hard-fought five-set victory over Endicott in the first round before suffering a 3-2 loss to national power Juniata in the second round in Rochester, N.Y.
MOVING UP THE CHARTS
• Gray enters the weekend ranked 13th in single-season program history with 296 kills and needs just four to join Tonya Strange '94, Meg Flaherty '12, Mary Donahue '16 and Allie Puccio '21 M'22 as one of just five players in Babson history to surpass 300 in a season.
• Ackerman's 767 assists are good for 12th in single-season program annals, while Stelter's 56 aces are tied for 14th.
• Gips' 80 total blocks rank 10th and her 1.23 blocks per set average is currently the best in single-season program history.
TOURNAMENT TESTED
• In seven postseason matches over the last two seasons, Gips is averaging 2.73 kills and 1.09 blocks to go along with a .306 hitting percentage.
• McShane is hitting .248 and averaging 2.08 kills, while Allen has contributed 2.04 kills per set.
• Defensively, Cabuena has averaged 4.27 digs per set and the trio of senior
Olivia Leinenweber (2.50), sophomore
Sophia Shaw (2.08) and Stelter (1.80) have combined to contribute more than six digs per set.
BEAVER BITES
• Over her last 12 matches, Cabuena has recorded 17 or more digs 11 times, which includes finishing with at least 22 on five occasions and 30 or more twice.
• Gray has registered at least six kills in each of her 28 matches this season and has finished with 10 or more kills 16 times.
• Gips has recorded at least four blocks in eight of her last nine outings going back to October 3.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 6-2 in neutral court matches this season.
• Babson is 21-2 on the year when winning the first set.
• The Green and Whtie is 6-3 in four-set matches and 4-1 in five-set contests this fall.
• The Beavers are 23-2 when recording more digs than their opponents on the year.
• Babson is 20-3 when finishing with more blocks.
• The Green and White is 19-0 when its opponents hit .150 or below this season.
UP NEXT
• The winner of Thursday's match will face either No. 21 Ithaca or Framingham State on Friday at 7 p.m.
