Women's Volleyball vs. Springfield
Saturday, November 9 | 4 p.m. 
Staake Gymnasium | Babson Park, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 9-20 all-time against Springfield in a series that dates back to 1998.
•    The Beavers have won seven of the last 10 matches between the teams since 2017. 
•    Ten of the last 14 matches between the Beavers and Pride have been decided in either four or five sets dating back to 2013. 
•    Babson and Springfield have split the last two matches inside Staake Gymnasium, both of which were decided in five sets. 

LAST MEETING
•    Emily Keaveney led all players with 17 kills and Natalie Billet recorded five of her nine kills in the decisive fifth set as the Pride rallied to defeat Babson, 22-25, 25-18, 24-26, 25-18, 15-11, on November 4, 2023, in Springfield, Mass. 
•    Tori Colosimo handed out 48 assists, Ally Townsend finished with 30 digs and Olivia Nealy added 20 digs for Springfield, which hit .241 over the final two sets.
•    Senior Lauren Gips registered 12 kills and seven blocks, sophomore Natalie Molendyk added 11 kills and six blocks, and classmate Zoe Ackerman dished out 44 assists for the Beavers, who also got 30 digs from junior Roz Cabuena in the loss. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Babson (22-5, 7-3 NEWMAC) has dropped three of its last four matches after getting swept by No. 4 MIT on Tuesday, 25-23, 25-9, 25-20. 
•    Junior Isabella Allen led all players with 11 kills, Ackerman doled out 22 assists and Cabuena recorded a match-high 22 digs for the Beavers, who finished with a season-low .031 hitting percentage in the loss. 
•    Gips (3.51 kills/set, 0.88 blocks/set) ranks second in the NEWMAC averaging 4.48 points per set and fourth in Division III with a .415 hitting percentage, Allen (3.12 k/s) is hitting a career-best .240 and sophomore Hailey Fouche is averaging 2.26 kills and 1.60 digs per set. 
•    Ackerman ranks second in the conference in both assists per set (9.98) and total service aces (62), while junior Sophia Shaw is sixth in the league averaging 4.36 digs per set. 

SCOUTING THE PRIDE
•    Springfield (20-6, 8-2 NEWMAC) has won five consecutive matches and is coming off a 3-0 victory over Endicott on Thursday night. 
•    Riley Donahue led all players with 13 kills, Maeve Voltz added six kills and a match-high 10 blocks, and Colosimo finished with 30 assists and four blocks for the Pride, which recorded season highs in both hitting percentage (.425) and total blocks (12). 
•    Donahue (3.24 k/s, 2.23 digs/set) ranks ninth in the league in kills, Billet is averaging 2.67 kills and 2.27 digs and Voltz (2.27 k/s, 1.21 b/s) leads the NEWMAC in blocks and boasts a .320 hitting percentage. 
•    Colosimo (7.66 ast/set) is handing out is averaging 10.25 assists over her last five matches, while Kristen DeLorenzo is contributing a team-high 3.81 digs per set on the year. 

NEWMAC TOURNAMENT IMPLICATIONS
•    The Beavers, who are currently in fourth place in the league standings, will finish third with a win over the Pride on Saturday. 
•    Should Babson lose, it would need Coast Guard to defeat Clark on Saturday to earn the fourth seed and a home quarterfinal on Tuesday. 
•    If the Green and White falls to Springfield and Clark beats Coast Guard, it would slip to the fifth seed and have to travel to Worcester to face the Cougars on Tuesday. 

PERFORMING AGAINST THE PRIDE
•    Cabuena has averaged 4.92 digs per set in three career matches against Springfield. 
•    Gips is averaging 2.54 kills, 1.23 blocks and 3.46 points per set in three career outings versus the Pride, which includes 13 total blocks in the last two matches between the teams.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
•    Gips, who now has 403.0 points on the year, joined Meg Flaherty '12, Mary Donahue '16 and Allie Puccio '21 M'22 as the only players in program history to surpass 400 points in a season for the Beavers. 
•    Ackerman is up to sixth with 928 assists and needs just 21 more to pass the totals set by Kathleen Lynch '13 in 2012 (928) and 2009 (948) to move into fourth place on the single-season list. 

CAREER MILESTONES
•    Senior Tatum Stelter, who ranks fourth in program history with 190 service aces, became just the ninth player in school history to surpass 1,100 digs in Tuesday's loss at MIT.
•    Gips ranks first in program history with a .369 hitting percentage and is seventh in total blocks (234) and ninth  in both points (946.0) and kills (714). 
•    Allen is now 15th on the Beavers' career list with 625 kills. 

TRENDS TO WATCH
•    Allen has recorded eight or more kills in eight consecutive matches going back to October 15. 
•    Ackerman has served up multiple aces in nine of the last 12 matches going back to October 5 and has at least one ace in 24 of 27 outings this fall.
•    Gips has finished with 10 or more kills in 17 of the Beavers' last 19 outings going back to September 21.
•    First-year Emma Watts recorded a season-high 14 digs at MIT and is averaging 2.58 digs over her last four matches. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 15-2 at home this season.
•    Babson is 14-1 this season and 107-6 since 2018 when finishing with more digs than its opponents. 
•    The Green and White is 21-1 this fall when serving up more aces than its foes. 
•    The Beavers are 35-0 over the last two seasons when hitting at least .200. 

UP NEXT
•    Babson is sets for a NEWMAC Tournament quarterfinal match on Tuesday at 7 p.m.