Women's Volleyball at No. 4 MIT
NEWMAC Tournament Semifinal
Saturday, November 16 | 1 p.m. 
Rockwell Cage | Cambridge, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 9-39 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to 1982. 
•    The teams have split their last eight matches going back to the 2018 conference tournament.
•    Nine of the last 11 matches between the teams have been decided in either four or five sets since 2017. 
•    The Beavers have dropped three straight matches against the Engineers on the road and are looking for their first win inside Rockwell Cage since the 2018 NEWMAC semifinals.

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Saturday's match marks the third year in a row and seventh time since 2014 that the Beavers and Engineers will meet in the conference playoffs.
•    Babson is 3-7 overall in 10 postseason matches against MIT with victories in the 2014 final and 2015 and 2018 semifinals. 
•    MIT defeated the Green and White in four sets (25-16, 16-25, 25-15, 25-14) in last year's NEWMAC semifinals.

LAST MEETING
•    Eileen Sadati recorded eight kills, Ella Gragg contributed seven kills and 14 digs and Kayleigh May finished with 25 assists, five kills and five blocks to help MIT sweep Babson, 25-23, 25-9, 25-20, on November 5 in Cambridge, Mass. 
•    Ottavia Peroneni had a team-high 21 digs and Daphne Gavros added 13 digs for the Engineers, who held the Beavers to their lowest hitting percentage of the season (.031). 
•    Junior Isabella Allen registered a match-high 11 kills, sophomore Zoe Ackerman handed out 22 assists and junior Roz Cabuena led all players with 22 digs in the loss for the Beavers. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Fifth-seeded Babson (23-6) snapped a three-match losing streak and advanced to the NEWMAC semifinals for the 10th year in a row with a 3-1 quarterfinal victory at fourth-seeded Clark on Tuesday night. 
•    Allen finished with 15 kills, senior Lauren Gips added 14 kills and a match-high six blocks, and Ackerman recorded 37 assists, 13 digs and three blocks for the Beavers, who took the final three sets and overcame a 24-21 deficit in the fourth. 
•    Gips ranks among the top five in the conference in kills (3.59), blocks (0.91) and points per set (4.55) and ranks eighth in Division III with a .397 hitting percentage, Allen (3.20 kills/set) is hitting a career-best .224 and sophomore Hailey Fouche is contributing 2.24 kills and 1.53 digs. 
•    Ackerman (9.93 ast/set, 2.05 digs/set) ranks second in the NEWMAC in both assists and service aces (64), junior Sophia Shaw is sixth in the league in digs per set (4.36) and Cabuena is averaging 3.55 digs per set in nine matches on the year. 

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
•    Top-seeded and fourth-ranked MIT (30-0) advanced to its fourth straight NEWMAC semifinal with a 3-1 quarterfinal win over eighth-seeded Emerson on Tuesday night. 
•    Consecreta Rozario hit .520 and had 13 kills and three blocks, May dished out 43 assists to go along with six blocks and Personeni led all players with 25 digs for the Engineers, who hit .412 in the fourth set and .250 for the match. 
•    Julia Tolstova (2.79 k/s) is hitting .226, Gragg (2.77 k/s, Gragg is averaging 2.77 kills and 2.37 digs per set, and Rosario (2.54 k/s, 0.91 b/s) ranks first in Division III with a .432 hitting percentage. 
•    May is handing out a league-best 10.21 assists per set and leads the team with 49 service aces, while Personeni is averaging 4.35 digs per set.

PLAYOFF SUCCESS
•    Babson has reached the semifinals of 10 consecutive conference tournaments and has captured four NEWMAC championships (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019) since 2014. 
•    The Beavers are 5-4 in their last nine conference semifinal matches and are looking to advance to the championship match for the sixth time in 10 years. 

HISTORY LESSON
•    Tuesday's victory over Clark was Babson's first NEWMAC quarterfinal road win since defeating Wellesley 3-1 back in 1993. 
•    The Beavers also had not played a conference tournament quarterfinal on the road since 2012 before besting the Cougars in Worcester. 

TOURNAMENT TESTED
•    Entering this year's conference tournament, 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 has averaged 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.

MAKING A MARK ON THE RECORD BOOK
•    Gips is now second on Babson's single-season list with 441 points and is tied for sixth in total blocks (88) and seventh with 348 kills. 
•    Gips also is up to fourth on the program's career list in blocks (243) and ranks eighth all-time in both kills (746) and points (984). 
•    Ackerman's 993 assists are fourth on the program's single-season list and she needs just 12 to move into second place. 
•    Ackerman's 64 service aces are also the most by a Babson player since 2001. 

BEAVER BITES
•    In three outings since returning from injury, Cabuena is averaging 5.70 digs per set. 
•    First-year Angelina Holm hit .571 and recorded five kills and four blocks in the win at Clark. 
•    Gips has finished with at least 14 kills in 12 of the last 18 matches. 
•    Allen has registered at least eight kills in nine of the last 10 contests going back to October 15. 

LIFE ON THE BUBBLE
•    As of Thursday morning, Babson ranks 36th 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 four at-large spots in the 64-team field. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 8-3 away from home this season. 
•    Babson is 17-2 when winning the first set. 
•    The Green and White is 35-0 over the last two seasons when finishing with a .200 hitting percentage. 
•    The Beavers are 15-0 on the year when holding their opponents to a hitting percentage of .150 or below. 
•    Babson is 7-3 on the season in matches that go four or five sets. 

UP NEXT
•    The winner of Saturday's first semifinal will take on either second-seeded Springfield or third-seeded Smith in Sunday's tournament final at 1 p.m.