Women's Volleyball at No. 12 MIT
NEWMAC Tournament Final
Sunday, November 16 | 1 p.m. 
Rockwell Cage | Cambridge, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 9-45 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to 1976. 
•    The Beavers have dropped their last four matches in the series on the heels of winning of four six against the Engineers from 2018-23, and have recorded eight of their nine wins in the all-time series since 2013. 
•    The Green and White is looking to snap a four-game skid against MIT in Rockwell Cage. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Babson and MIT will meet for the fourth consecutive season in the NEWMAC Tournament and for the eighth time in the postseason since 2014 on Sunday. 
•    The Beavers are 3-8 overall versus the Engineers in the conference playoffs and have split a pair of matches in the finals. Babson won in five sets in 2014 and dropped a four-set decision back in 2022. 
•    The Green and White is looking for its first win over MIT in the postseason since 2018 when it recorded a 3-1 semifinal triumph. 

LAST MEETING
•    Ella Zhou finished with 11 kills, Eileen Sadati recorded 10 kills and four blocks, and MIT swept the Beavers (25-20, 25-21, 25-21) on October 21 in Babson Park. 
•    Kaleigh May handed out 25 assists and Daphne Gavros tied for match-high honors with 14 digs for the Engineers, who trailed 17-13 in both the first and third sets before scoring seven consecutive points in each stanza. 
•    Senior Isabella Allen registered nine kills, sophomore Angelina Holm added six kills and three blocks, and junior Zoe Ackerman contributed 30 assists and 10 digs for Babson, which committed 15 service errors. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Second-seeded Babson (21-6) has won four straight and eight of its last 10 matches after sweeping third-seeded Springfield in Saturday's semifinals. 
•    First-years Liberty May and Devon Burke recorded 10 kills apiece, Ackerman dished out 33 assists and senior Sophia Shaw led all players with 17 digs for the Beavers, who overcame a seven-point deficit in the opening set and never trailed int the final two games. 
•    Allen is averaging a team-high 2.68 kills per set and is hitting .231 on the season and .259 over her last 10 matches, junior Hailey Fouche is contributing 2.28 kills per set and Holm (2.11 k/s, 0.81 b/s) ranks fourth in the conference with a .350 hitting percentage. 
•    First-year Ailsa Munro ranks fourth in the NEWMAC in blocks per set (0.94), Ackerman is second in the league in both assists per set (8.91) and service aces (65), and Shaw ranks fifth in the conference averaging 3.91 digs per set. 

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
•    Top-seeded and 12th-ranked MIT (26-3) has won 18 straight matches after cruising past fifth-seeded Coast Guard 3-0 in Saturday's semifinals. 
•    Sadati led all players with 12 kills, Zhou and Ali Gibbs both recorded 10 kills and May dished out 41 assists to go along with seven digs and three blocks for the Engineers, who hit .387 while making just eight errors in the victory. 
•    Zhou is averaging 3.32 kills and 2.93 digs per set, Sadati is contributing 3.28 kills per set and Gibbs (2.71 k/s, 0.73 b/s) leads the team in blocks and boasts a .361 hitting percentage. 
•    May is handing out a league-best 11.06 assists per set, while Gavros is averaging 3.90 digs per set. 

WHAT'S AT STAKE
•    Babson is looking to claim its first NEWMAC Tournament championship since 2019 when it defeated Emerson for its fourth title in the span of six seasons. 
•    The Beavers, who are ranked 24th in the NPI entering Sunday's match, and No. 6 MIT are both assured of competing in next week's NCAA Tournament if they don't earn the league's automatic bid with a victory on Sunday. 

POSTSEASON SUCCESS
•    Babson is 6-5 while making 11 consecutive conference semifinal appearances since 2014 and has captured four NEWMAC championships (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019) during this stretch. 
•    Prior to claiming the first tournament championship in program history in 2014, the Green and White had not won a conference tournament match since the 1993 NEW 8 quarterfinals.
•    The Beavers are 4-1 in five NEWMAC Tournament final appearances since 2014 with four of the five matches having been played in Cambridge. 

20 AND 10
•    With last Saturday's win at Springfield, Babson finished the regular season with 10 NEWMAC victories for the first time in program history. 
•    The Beavers had previously finished 9-1 in 2014, 2019 and 2021, and went 9-2 in 2023. 
•    The Green and White has now concluded the regular season with at least nine conference victories and 20 wins overall in the regular season four times since 2014 (2014, 2019, 2021, 2025). 

900 CLUB
•    With 13 kills in last Saturday's victory, Allen became just the sixth player in Babson history to surpass 900 for her career. 
•    She passed Lorraine Mackiewicz '17 on Saturday for fifth place on the all-time kills list with 905, and also ranks 10th on the Beavers' career points list with 946.0. 

SINGLE-SEASON SUPERLATIVES
•    Entering the weekend, Ackerman's 918 assists rank eighth on the program's single-season list and she joins Kathleen Lynch '13 and Elizabeth Cameron '20 as the only setters in school history to surpass 900 assists in multiple seasons. 
•    Munro's 85 total blocks are currently 10th on the Beavers' single-season chart and she needs just five more to become the sixth player in program history with 90 or more blocks in a season.
•    Shaw's 383 digs rank 12th in in single-season program history and she needs just six to move into the top 10 and 17 to become the 10th player in school annals to surpass 400 digs in a season. 

TRENDS TO WATCH
•    Over the last five matches going into Saturday's clash with Springfield, Holm is averaging 2.65 kills per set while hitting. 420.
•    Shaw has finished with at least 12 digs in 14 straight contests and is averaging 4.27 digs per set during this stretch. 
•    Munro has 57 total blocks over the last 14 matches and is averaging 1.19 blocks per set during this time.
•    First-year Misaki Harte has at least one service ace in seven of the last eight matches and has finished with two or more aces in 10 of the last 15 contests. 
•    Fouche has recorded nine or more kills in five of the last eight matches and in 14 outings since October 4 is averaging 2.59 kills and 0.80 blocks per set while hitting .231. 
•    Allen has finished with at least eight kills in nine of her last 11 outings. 
•    May has recorded double-digit kills six times this fall and her 14 against Mount Holyoke are the most since finishing with a season-high 22 kills in a five-set triumph at Smith on September 27.
•    Sophomore Sabina Frosk has finished with at least seven digs in 11 of the Beavers' last 13 matches going back to October 10. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 7-4 in NEWMAC Tournament matches played at MIT going back to 2014. 
•    Babson has won 53 straight contests when hitting .200 or better over the last three seasons, which includes a 18-0 mark this fall.
•    The Green and White is 21-3 on the year when winning the opening set. 
•    The Beavers are 13-1 on the year when recording at least 10 service aces. 

UP NEXT
•    Both the Beavers and MIT will learn where they will open NCAA Tournament play during Monday's 1 p.m. Division III selection show.