Women's Volleyball at Clark
NEWMAC Tournament Quarterfinal
Tuesday, November 12 | 7 p.m.
Kneller Athletic Center | Worcester, Mass.
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 19-22 all-time against Clark in a series that dates back to 1980.
• The Beavers have dropped two straight matches to the Cougars on the heels of a six-match winning streak in the series and have won 12 of the last 16 meetings between the teams since 2011.
• The Green and White is just 1-3 over its last four trips to the Kneller Athletic Center since 2016.
POSTSEASON HISTORY
• The Beavers are 3-0 all-time in the conference playoffs versus Clark.
• Babson defeated Clark 3-0 in the 2014 quarterfinals and 3-1 in the 2022 quarterfinals, and recorded a three-set sweep in the 2015 NEWMAC Tournament final.
LAST MEETING
• Victoria Pastor finished with 26 kills and 14 digs and Clark withstood a late rally to outlast Babson in five sets, 25-20, 25-22, 18-25, 23-25, 15-10, on October 22 in Worcester, Mass.
• Sofia Scherrer del Llano recorded 10 kills, nine digs and three blocks, and Yvanna Torres handed out 32 assists to go along with 11 digs for the Cougars, who won despite a season-high 21 service errors.
• Senior
Lauren Gips matched her career high with 19 kills to go along with five blocks, sophomore
Hailey Fouche recorded 14 kills and a career-high 15 digs, and classmate
Zoe Ackerman handed out 40 assists for the Beavers, who hit .172 in the loss.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Fifth-seeded Babson (22-6) has dropped three straight matches after suffering a 3-0 loss to Springfield in Saturday's regular season finale.
• Gips led all players with 18 kills and three blocks, Ackerman finished with 28 assists and junior
Roz Cabuena had 16 digs for the Beavers, who recorded a season-low one service ace.
• Gips ranks among the top five in the conference in kills (3.59), blocks (0.88) and points per set (4.55) and ranks fourth in Division III with a .410 hitting percentage, junior
Isabella Allen (3.06 kills/set) is hitting a career-best .230 and Fouche is contributing 2.26 kills and 1.58 digs.
• Ackerman (9.96 ast/set, 2.00 digs/set) ranks second in the NEWMAC in both assists and service aces (62), junior
Sophia Shaw is sixth in the league in digs per set (4.36) and Cabuena is averaging 3.37 digs per set in eight matches on the year.
SCOUTING THE COUGARS
• Fourth-seeded Clark (14-11) recorded its highest league finish since 2016 with a three-set sweep of Coast Guard on Saturday in New London, Conn.
• Pastor put away 17 kills, Scherrer del Llano added nine kills and Camille Sterling finished with eight kills and five blocks for the Cougars, who had four players finish with double-digit digs in the victory.
• Pastor (3.42 k/s, 2.45 digs/set) ranks seventh in the conference in kills and has recorded at least 11 in nine of the last 10 matches, Scherrer del Llano is averaging 2.07 kills and 2.86 digs per set, and Sterling is hitting .346 and contributing 2.00 kills per set to go along with 50 total blocks.
• Torres and Julia Dopazo have combined to hand out 8.14 assists per set, while Yumeng Liu leads the defense averaging 4.05 digs per set.
UNFAMILIAR ROAD
• After hosting eight consecutive NEWMAC Tournament quarterfinals going back to 2013, the Beavers will be on the road for the opening round of the conference playoffs for the first time since 2012 on Tuesday night when they visit Clark.
• Babson is seeking its first quarterfinal victory on the road since 1993 when it traveled across town and defeated Wellesley, 3-1, as a member of the NEW 8 Conference.
PLAYOFF SUCCESS
• The Beavers have been victorious in their last seven NEWMAC quarterfinal appearances dating back to 2014.
• Babson has reached the semifinals of nine consecutive conference tournaments and has captured four NEWMAC championships (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019) since 2014.
• Prior to claiming the first tournament championship in program history in 2014, the Green and White had not won a conference tournament match since the 1993 NEW 8 quarterfinals.
TOURNAMENT TESTED
• Gips has averaged 2.63 kills, 0.93 blocks and 3.52 points per set while hitting .311 in eight career postseason matches, while Allen has 62 kills in nine tournament contests over the last two years.
• Cabuena is averaging 4.27 digs per set in seven conference and NCAA Tournament matches, senior
Tatum Stelter has contributed 2.56 digs in 12 career postseason outings, and Shaw has averaged 2.00 digs in the postseason over the last two seasons.
MOVING ON UP
• Gips is now third on Babson's single-season list with 423.5 points an is just three away from matching Allie Puccio's '21 M'22 second-place total of 326.5 points achieved in 2018.
• Gips also is up to eighth on the single-season kills list with 334 and is 10th with 82 blocks, which are two away from last year's career high.
• Ackerman's 956 assists are fourth on the program's single-season list and her 62 assists are tied with Stelter's 2023 total for the most by a Babson player since 2001.
LIFE ON THE BUBBLE
• As of Sunday, Babson ranks 38th in the
NCAA Percentage Index (NPI), which is being used to select the 21 at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament after 43 conference champions secure their automatic berths.
• Accounting for the team atop the standings in all 43 conferences, the Beavers currently hold one of the last three at-large spots in the 64-team field along with Calvin (No. 39) and Eastern (No. 40).
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 7-3 away from home on the year.
• Babson is 17-2 when winning the first set and 5-4 when it drops the opening game.
• The Green and White is 35-0 over the last two seasons when finishing with a .200 hitting percentage over the last two seasons but has hit just .177 in two losses against the Cougars.
• The Beavers are 21-1 when recording more aces than its opponents this fall but finished with just two in the October 22 loss at Clark.
• Babson is 14-0 this fall when holding its foes to a hitting percentage of .150 or below.
UP NEXT
• The winner of Tuesday's quarterfinal will face either top-seeded MIT or eighth-seeded Emerson in a semifinal on Saturday at the highest remaining seed.
