SOUTH HADLEY, Mass.—First-year Liberty May (Grapevine, Texas) led a balanced attack with 10 kills and added three service aces and two blocks to help visiting Babson College defeat Mount Holyoke College in four sets, 25-17, 27-25, 22-25, 25-22, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's volleyball action on Saturday afternoon inside Mildred S. Howard Gymnasium. 

With its 10th consecutive victory, Babson improves to 14-3 overall and 7-0 in conference play. Mount Holyoke, which had its four-match winning streak snapped, is now 12-8 overall and 3-4 in the NEWMAC. 

First-year Ailsa Munro (Sylmar, Calif.) provided eight kills and a match-high four blocks, junior Hailey Fouche (Montclair, N.J.) contributed with eight kills and three blocks, and first-year Devon Burke (Newtonville, Mass.) chipped in with six kills to pace the Beavers. Junior Zoe Ackerman (Aurora, Colo.) handed out 26 assists, first-year Quinn Kane (Chicago, Ill.) finished with 14, and senior Sophia Shaw (Novato, Calif.) led all players with 16 digs in the win. 

Senior Elle Rimando (Mililani, Hawaii) recorded 16 kills and nine digs, while classmate Madeline Barton (Brookfield, Wis.) totaled 15 kills to lead the Lyons. Fellow senior Sadie Duffrin (Minneapolis, Minn.) doled out a match-high 35 assists and junior Kyra Staples (Chatham, Ill.) had a team-high 14 digs in the loss. 

With the teams deadlocked at 11-all in the opening set, the Green and White used two kills apiece by Fouche and Munro and back-to-back service aces by first-year Misaki Harte (San Jose, Calif.) to build a seven-point edge. Barton stopped the run momentarily, but Fouche answered with a kill and combined with junior Nora Whitehurst (Atlanta, Ga.) on a block before Shaw recorded an ace for a 21-12 lead it would not relinquish. 

The Beavers trailed by as many as five early in game two were down 24-21 before erasing three set points for a 2-0 advantage in the match. Junior Allison Molendyk (Danville, Calif.) recorded consecutive kills to pull within one and May took over from there, putting away a pair of kills and then serving up two straight aces for a 27-25 win. 

Mount Holyoke hit .357 and recorded 15 kills in game three to extend the match, but Babson responded by closing out the match in a fourth set that featured 15 ties, six lead changes and the teams being separated by more than two points just twice. The Lyons took their final lead at 18-17 on a service error before the Green and White scored five of the next seven points to forge a 22-20 advantage on back-to-back kills by Munro and Burke. 

Burke followed a kill by Rimando with her fourth of the stanza to make it 23-21 and Fouche followed with kills on two of the next three points to end the contest. 

Both teams are back in action on Tuesday as Babson hosts 15th-ranked MIT at 6 p.m., while Mount Holyoke meets Springfield at 7 p.m. 

MATCH NOTES
•    The Beavers are 23-16 all-time against Mount Holyoke and have won 14 straight and 18 of the last 19 matches between the teams since 2006. 
•    Babson is 7-0 in NEWMAC play for the fourth consecutive season and has a winning streak of at least 10 matches for the fourth year in a row. 
•    The Green and White hit .258 as a team on Saturday and has now won 48 straight matches when it finishes with a hitting percentage of .200 or better. 
•    The Beavers are 8-2 this fall in four-set matches.