Women's Volleyball Babson Invitational 
vs. Franklin & Marshall | Friday, September 6 | 6 p.m. 
vs. UMass Dartmouth | Saturday, September 7 | 11 a.m. 
vs. No. 14 Wesleyan | Saturday, September 7 | 5:30 p.m.  

WHAT TO KNOW
•    The Babson women's volleyball team will host its second tournament in as many weekends to open the season on Friday and Saturday inside Staake Gymnasium. 
•    The Beavers face Franklin & Marshall on Friday before playing host to UMass Dartmouth and 14th-ranked Wesleyan on Saturday. 

SERIES HISTORY
vs. Franklin & Marshall
•    First meeting 

vs. UMass Dartmouth
•    Babson is 11-11 all-time against the Corsairs in a series that dates back to 1980. 
•    Babson has won its last five matches against UMass Dartmouth, which includes claiming the final two sets to record a 3-2 triumph last September. 

vs. Wesleyan 
•    The Beavers are 2-3 all-time against the Cardinals in a series that goes back to 2009.
•    Babson has won its last two matches against Wesleyan although Saturday's match will be the first between the programs since 2016. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Babson (4-0) wrapped up the opening weekend of the season with an easy three-set sweep of Colby-Sawyer last Saturday. 
•    Senior Lauren Griffin hit .583 and led all players with seven kills, first-year Angelina Holm contributed three kills and a match-high four blocks, and sophomore Zoe Ackerman dished out 22 assists for the Beavers, who hit a season-best .439 in the match. 
•    Junior Isabella Allen (2.25 kills/set) is hitting .429, sophomore Hailey Fouche is averaging 2.10 kills per set and Griffin boasts a .500 hitting percentage and leads the team with 23 kills against just two errors . 
•    Ackerman is handing out 7.92 assists per set and is first on the team with 15 service aces, while junior Sophia Shaw leads the squad in both total digs (38) and digs per set (3.17). 

SCOUTING FRANKLIN & MARSHALL
•    The Diplomats (3-1) enter the weekend riding a two-match winning streak after defeating York, 3-0, on Tuesday night. 
•    Melissa Benkowitz finished with seven kills and 12 digs, Coco Shultz added seven kills and 10 digs, and Gianna Mangiamele hit .545 while adding six kills for Franklin & Marshall, which hit .321 over the final two sets. 
•    Shultz is averaging 2.86 kills and 2.43 digs per set, Mangiamele (2.29 k/s) is hitting .247 and Rei Baker is contributing 1.93 kills while hitting .275 to go along with a team-high eight total blocks. 
•    Liah Perez and Carly Campbell have combined for 9.08 assists per set, while Benkowitz is averaging a team-high 2.83 digs per set. 

SCOUTING UMASS DARTMOUTH
•    The Corsairs (3-0) wrapped up an unbeaten weekend on the road with a 3-0 sweep of Vassar last Saturday in Montclair, N.J.
•    Olivia Seutter recorded 11 kills and three blocks, Kate Wade added nine kills and Sabrina Bordone chipped in with 12 assists, nine digs and two aces for UMass Dartmouth, which totaled 29 kills over the final two sets. 
•    Seutter (4.33 k/s, 0.78 blocks/set) is hitting .523, Wade is averaging 4.11 kills and 3.44 digs per set, and Chelsea Sanker is adding 1.78 kills per set to lead an offense that is hitting .285. 
•    Bordone and Skye Peters have combined to dish out 11.78 assists per set, while Emily Pogorelec averaged a team-high 4.78 digs per set. 

SCOUTING WESLEYAN 
•    The 14th-ranked Cardinals (1-0) opened the season with a 3-0 win over Hartford on Tuesday night. 
•    Bianca Gonya finished with eight kills and three blocks, Michelle Jorba contributed eight kills and the duo of Ella Blair and Ali Landa combined to dish out 23 assists for Wesleyan, which hit .244 in the victory. 
•    The Cardinals return 12 players from a team that finished 24-2 overall and advanced to the NCAA Tournament regional final last November. 
•    Sophia Lindus (4.17 k/s, 2.80 d/s) had a .306 hitting percentage in 2023, Jorba contributed 2.29 kills and 0.77 blocks per set and Landa handed out 5.62 assists per set while splitting time at setter. 

HOME SWEET HOME
•    The Beavers enter the weekend riding a 16-match winning streak inside Staake Gymnasium, which is tied for the fourth longest in Division III along with Pacific Lutheran and behind only Juniata (51), Eastern (24) and Covenant (20). 
•    Since head coach Eric Neely arrived in Babson Park in 2011, Babson is 130-26 at home for a .833 winning percentage. 

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
•    With eight aces in the Beavers' four wins last weekend, senior Tatum Stelter now has 163 for her career and passed Elizabeth Cameron '20 for fifth on the program's all-time list.
•    Ackerman dished out 95 assists in Babson's four matches last weekend and with 909 for her career she is one of just seven players in program history to surpass 900 assists. 

GOING THE DISTANCE
•    Last year's five-set win over UMass Dartmouth was one of five five-set victories last season by the Green and White. 
•    Sophomore Allison Molendyk hit .340 and recorded a career-high 24 kills, Ackerman finished with a career-high 56 assists and Shaw totaled a career-best 23 digs as the Beavers rallied from an 11-8 deficit in the fifth set by scoring seven of the final eight points of the match. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    Going back to the start of last season, the Green and White is 23-1 when finishing with more digs than its opponents. 
•    The Beavers are 20-0 since the start of last year when hitting at least .200. 
•    Babson is 40-3 in the month of September since 2021. 
•    Dating back to the start of the 2022 campaign, the Beavers are 45-2 when winning the first set. 

UP NEXT
•    Babson is off for 10 days before traveling to Simmons for its first road match of the season on September 17.