BABSON PARK, Mass.—Senior Lauren Gips (Winter Park, Fla.) led all players with 18 kills but visiting Springfield College hit .272 on the way to defeating Babson College in three sets, 25-20, 25-20, 25-19, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's volleyball action on Saturday afternoon inside Staake Gymnasium. 

Babson, which has dropped its last three matches, ends the regular season at 22-6 overall and 7-4 in league play, and will be the fifth seed in next week's NEWMAC Tournament. Springfield, which earned the third seed in the upcoming conference playoffs, improves to 21-6 overall and 9-2 in the NEWMAC with its sixth consecutive win. 

Gips recorded 15 of her 18 kills over the final two sets and hit .333 to go along with three blocks for the Beavers. Sophomore Hailey Fouche (Montclair, N.J.) contributed five kills, classmate Zoe Ackerman (Aurora, Colo.) handed out 28 assists to go along with eight digs and junior Roz Cabuena (Kailua, Hawaii) tied for match-high honors with 16 digs in the loss. 

Senior Riley Donahue (South Windsor, Conn.) finished with 14 kills and 16 digs, while classmate Natalie Billet (Commack, N.Y.) added 10 kills to pace the Pride. Sophomore Tori Colosimo (Fairport, N.Y.) doled out 34 assists, junior Maeve Voltz (Bay Shore, N.Y.) had nine kills and two blocks and both senior Morgan Stafford (Corbett, Ore.) and sophomore Olivia Nealy (Athens, Ga.) totaled 11 digs in the victory. 

The Green and White led for much of the opening set and held an 18-16 advantage after a kill by sophomore Nora Whitehurst (Atlanta, Ga.) before Springfield scored six consecutive points to spark a 9-2 closing run. Sophomore Jodi Saelua (Mililani, Hawaii) and Voltz both contributed a kill and a block and two more kills by Billet gave the Pride a 24-19 lead that it would not relinquish. 

The visitors never trailed in game two while recording 15 kills and hitting .414 to go in front 2-0. The Beavers got within 9-7 thanks to back-to-back kills by Fouche but Donahue answered with three kills as Springfield scored eight of the next 11 points to stretch its advantage to 17-10. Billett then put away three kills in the span of five points late in the stanza to close out a 25-20 win. 

The Pride trailed just once in the third set and used a pair of kills by junior Emily Keaveney (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) and a service ace by Stafford during a 6-1 spurt to open a 13-7 advantage. The Beavers were able to back within three points on eight occasions, the last coming at 22-19 before Springfield took advantage of three straight errors to wrap up the match. 

Both teams will be back in action on Tuesday in the NEWMAC Tournament quarterfinals at 7 p.m. as Babson travels to fourth-seeded Clark while Springfield hosts seventh-seeded Coast Guard. 

MATCH NOTES
•    The Beavers are 9-21 all-time against Springfield but suffered just their fourth loss in the last 11 matches between the teams since 2017.
•    Gips moved up to fourth on the program's single-season list with 422.0 points in Saturday's loss.
•    Babson is now just 5-4 when dropping the first set this season and is 1-4 when losing the first two sets. 
•    The Beavers, who finished with a .161 hitting percentage on Saturday, are 3-6 when hitting below .200 this fall.