Women's Volleyball at Rivier | 11 a.m.
vs. Nichols | 1 p.m.
Muldoon Center | Nashua, N.H.
WHAT TO KNOW
• The Babson women's volleyball team hits the road for four straight matches beginning with a pair of contests at Rivier on Saturday.
• The Beavers face the host Raiders at 11 a.m. before taking on Nichols at 1 p.m.
SERIES HISTORY
vs. Rivier
• Babson is 3-2 all-time against the Raiders in a series that dates back to 2003.
• The Beavers split a pair of five-set matches with Rivier in 2011 and 2013 before recording back-to-back victories in 2015 and 2016.
• Saturday's match will be the first between the teams since 2016.
vs. Nichols
• The Beavers and Bison will meet for the first time on Saturday afternoon.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (16-1) enters the weekend riding a 12-match winning streak after recording a four-set victory over Mount Holyoke on Tuesday night.
• Senior
Lauren Gips matched her season high with 18 kills, junior
Isabella Allen added 14 kills and a career-high 15 digs, and sophomore
Zoe Ackerman handed out 44 assists for the Beavers, who recorded 11 service aces and finished with a .235 hitting percentage in the win.
• Gips (3.44 kills/set, 0.98 blocks/set) ranks fifth in Division III with a .432 hitting percentage, Allen (3.12 k/s) is hitting a career-best .273 and senior
Lauren Griffin is averaging 2.24 kills per set.
• Ackerman ranks 15th in Division III in assists per set (10.00) and leads the team with 37 service aces, while junior
Sophia Shaw is first on the squad with 223 digs and is averaging a career-high 4.46 digs per set.
SCOUTING THE RAIDERS
• Rivier (10-7) has won two straight and five of its last six matches after rallying for a five-set victory over Emmanuel on Wednesday night.
• Ali Rivera had 13 kills and 16 digs, Lily Sills contributed 12 kills and six blocks, and Ryan Hicks recorded 32 assists, nine digs and four blocks for the Raiders, who won despite finishing with a .040 hitting percentage.
• Sills (2.12 k/s, 0.64 b/s) leads the team in both kills and blocks, Rivera is averaging 2.11 kills and 2.08 digs per set, and Brynn Rohe is contributing 1.61 kills per set.
• Hicks is handing out 5.48 assists per set and Hannah Raab leads the team with 53 service aces and is averaging a team-best 2.90 digs per set.
SCOUTING THE BISON
• Nichols (3-11), which is the midst of a stretch of five matches in four days, has dropped its last three contests after suffering a 3-0 setback to Wheaton on Thursday night.
• Luna Colozzo had five kills and Liz Diorio recorded 10 digs for the Bison, which recorded a season-low nine kills and hit a season-worst -.169 in the loss to the Lyons.
• Colozzo (2.11 k/s, 2.64 d/s) is second on the team with 22 service aces, Kya Burdier is averaging 1.68 kills per set and Haylee Granato (1.39 k/s, 0.73 b/s) is second on the team in blocks.
• Ruby St. Onge and Hailey Wright have combined to hand out 6.63 assists per set, while Diorio is averaging a team-high 3.30 digs per set on the year.
STEPPING UP
• In addition to Allen totaling a season-high 15 digs in Tuesday's victory over Mount Holyoke, senior
Tatum Stelter contributed a season-high 24 digs.
• First-year
Emma Watts, who had played just five sets prior to Tuesday, recorded season highs of six kills and two blocks, while junior
Lilly Steiner added three kills and a season-best three blocks in the win.
GIPS COLLECTS OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS
• After averaging 4.38 kills, 1.15 blocks and 5.23 points per set over four matches, Gips was selected as the NEWMAC Offensive Player of the Week on Monday.
• She recorded 57 kills against just six errors and finished the week with a .500 hitting percentage, and put away 10 or more kills in all four matches.
WINNING WAYS
• Going back to 2017, Babson has put together a winning streak of at least eight matches in seven consecutive seasons.
• The Beavers' current 12-match streak the fourth longest during this stretch behind the 2019 squad, which won a school-record 22 straight outings, and the 2022 and 2023 teams that both recorded 16 consecutive victories.
• With its win on Tuesday over Mount Holyoke, the Green and White has started 16-1 in three straight seasons going back to 2022.
STREAKING BEAVERS
• Ackerman has recorded 30 or more assists in eight consecutive matches going back to September 21.
• Gips has finished with double-digit kills in nine straight outings since September 21.
• Junior
Hailey Fouche has registered two or more blocks in five straight matches.
• Shaw has contributed at least 11 digs in seven of her last eight matches, while first-year
Sabina Frosk has provided eight or more digs in each of the last six contests.
MOVING UP THE CHARTS
• Stelter, who passed Brianna San Diego '15 for fourth place on the program's all-time list with 179 career service aces last Saturday against Roger Williams, needs just 18 digs to become the 11th player in school history to reach 1,000 for her career.
• Gips now ranks 11th in program history with 209 total blocks, 13th with 791.0 points and 15th with 587 kills in addition to ranking first with a .364 career hitting percentage.
NEELY NEARING MILESTONE
• With the win over the Lyons on Tuesday, head coach
Eric Neely now has 297 career victories.
• Neely, who arrived at Babson in 2011 and became the program's winningest coach in 2015, ranks 18th among active coaches and 28th in Division III history with a .730 winning percentage (297-110).
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 17-7 in road and neutral matches going back to the start of last season.
• Babson is 31-1 over the last two seasons when recording more digs than its opponents.
• The Green and White, which ranks 16th in Division III in hitting percentage, is 109-4 dating back to 2018 when hitting .200 or better.
• The Beavers have recorded more service aces than its opponents in 16 of 17 matches this fall.
UP NEXT
• Babson jumps back into NEWMAC play when it travels to WPI on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
