Women's Volleyball at No. 21 Ithaca
NCAA Tournament | Ithaca Regional | Second Round
Friday, November 17 | 7 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
Eastern 3, Tufts 2
No. 6 NYU 3, Eastern Nazarene 0
Babson 3, Stevenson 2
No. 22 Ithaca 3, Framingham State 0

Second Round
No. 6 NYU (30-4) vs. Eastern (28-3), 4:30 p.m.
Babson (25-6) at No. 21 Ithaca (26-4), 7 p.m. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 0-2 all-time against Ithaca in a series that dates back to 2015. 
•    The teams last met in the 2017 NCAA Tournament Potsdam Regional final when the Bombers defeated the Beavers in four sets, 25-17, 23-25, 25-20, 25-15. 

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 BOMBERS
•    Ithaca (25-4) enters the NCAA Tournament riding a 10-match winning streak after defeating William Smith, 3-0, to claim its second consecutive Liberty League championship last Saturday. 
•    Naomi Clauhs finished with 12 kills and Jamie Koopman and Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu added eight kills apiece for the Bombers, who hit .354 as a team in the victory.
•    Gonzalez-Abreu is averaging 3.54 kills per set and hitting .227, Faith Sabatier is contributing 2.66 kills per set and Koopman (2.62 k/s) is hitting .395 and is tied for the team lead with 68 total blocks. 
•    Maddie Cox is handing out 10.23 assists per set, Julia Costa is averaging a team-high 3.89 digs per set and Ellie Benedict leads the team with 49 service aces and is contributing 2.82 digs per set.

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, 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 2-5 all-time in NCAA Tournament second round matches, which includes five-set losses to Juniata in 2021 and Tufts in 2022.
•    Ithaca is making its 25th NCAA Tournament appearance and has twice advanced to the national semifinals (1994, 2017). 

THINGS IN COMMON
•    The Beavers and Bombers share four common opponents in NYU, MIT, Endicott and Williams. 
•    Babson split with MIT, beat Endicott in five sets and lost to both NYU and Williams, while Ithaca defeated all four foes. 

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 7-4 in road matches this season. 
•    Babson is 22-2 on the year when winning the first set.
•    The Green and Whtie is 6-3 in four-set matches and 5-1 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 Friday's match will meet either NYU or Eastern in the regional final on Saturday at 5 p.m.