DARTMOUTH, Mass.—First-year Allison Molendyk (Danville, Calif.) finished the day with 40 kills as Babson College recorded victories over UMass Boston and the host Corsairs at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday afternoon inside the Tripp Athletic Center. 

The Beavers cruised to a three-set sweep of the Beacons (25-23, 25-7, 25-15) before rallying past UMass Dartmouth in five sets, 15-25, 25-19, 27-29, 25-15, 15-12. With the victories, Babson has won its last four matches and is now 8-1 overall on the year. 

Babson 3, UMass Boston 0
Molendyk hit a blistering .419 and led all players with 16 kills, first-year Zoe Ackerman (Aurora, Colo.) dished out 26 assists and junior Tatum Stelter (Glendale, Ariz.) registered a match-high 20 digs to lead the Beavers. Senior Erin Gray (Oakland, Calif.) added seven kills and classmate Lulu McShane (Glencoe, Ill.) finished with six kills while hitting at a .545 clip to go along with a season-high five service aces. 

Paige Coulson and Taryn Broughal both had five kills, while Ally Dean  doled out 19 assists for the Beacons. 

McShane contributed an ace and a kill and Molendyk tallied three consecutive kills to help the Green and White jump out to a 10-3 lead in the opening set. UMass Boston rallied to get as close as 19-16 but the Beavers used two kills from Gray, one by junior Lilly Steiner (Hingham, Mass.) and another by first-year Nora Whitehurst (Decatur, Ga.) to finish off the stanza. 

Babson scored 12 consecutive points on the serve of McShane as part of an opening 16-1 run and hit .357 on the way to building a commanding two-game lead. The start of the third featured seven ties and three lead changes before the Beavers pulled away with an extended 12-1 spurt. Gray, Molendyk and McShane all had a pair of kills as they turned a one-point deficit into an 18-8 advantage. 

Babson 3, UMass Dartmouth 2
Molendyk put away a season-high 24 kills, McShane tallied a career-high 18 kills and Gray finished with 10 kills for the Green and White, which hit .210 as a team. Ackerman dished out a season-high 56 assists, Stelter had a season-best 23 digs and sophomore Sophia Shaw (Novato, Calif.) registered a career-high 19 digs in the win. 

Kate Wade finished with 16 kills and 11 digs, Skye Peters recorded 20 assists and 11 digs and Emily Pogorelec led all players with 29 digs in the loss for the Corsairs. 

UMass Dartmouth tallied 13 kills in game one and scored nine straight points on the serve of Peters to build an 18-8 lead to go up a set. Babson responded by hitting .333 in the second and led by as many as six at 17-11 before using a late 6-1 run to even the match. 

The third set featured 17 ties and seven lead changes with neither team leading by more than four. The Corsairs erased a match point trailing 24-23 and the Beavers fought off three straight to pull even at 27-all before the hosts took advantage of a service error and an attack error to go in front 2-1 with a 29-27 victory. 

The Green and White bounced back in the fourth hitting a blistering .414 while recording 15 kills to force a decisive fifth set. UMass Dartmouth took advantage of a pair of errors and used a kill by Wade to build a 10-7 lead before the visitors rallied to win by scoring eight of the final 10 points. 

Shaw tied the game at 11 with an ace and Molendyk gave the Beavers a 12-11 lead with her final kill of the afternoon. The hosts pulled even on a service error but McShane put the Green and White back in front 13-12 with a kill and followed up an ace by Stelter with another kill on match point. 

Babson plays the last of its eight straight matches on the road when it travels to Boston for its NEWMAC opener against Emerson on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

MATCH NOTES
•    The Beavers are 24-7 all-time against UMass Boston and 11-11 in the all-time series versus UMass Dartmouth. 
•    Prior to the win over the Corsairs, each of Babson's first eight matches this season had been decided in three sets. 
•    The Green and White is 6-1 in road and neutral-court matches this season. 
•    In three wins over the weekend at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, the Beavers averaged 13.73 kills per set and hit .246.