Women's Volleyball at Springfield
Saturday, November 8 | 1 p.m.
Blake Auditorium | Springfield, Mass.
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 9-21 all-time against Springfield in a series that dates back to 1998.
• The Beavers have dropped back-to-back matches in the series after winning seven of nine versus the Pride from 2017-22.
• Eight of the last 11 matches between the teams have been decided in four or five sets.
• The Green and White is 3-3 in its last six trips to Springfield, which includes a five-set victory in 2017 and four-set triumphs in 2018 and 2019.
LAST MEETING
• Riley Donahue recorded team highs of 14 kills and 16 digs and Tori Colosimo handed out 34 assists to help Springfield defeat the Beavers in three sets, 25-20, 25-20, 25-17, on November 9, 2024, in Babson Park.
• Natalie Billet added 10 kills and Maeve Voltz hit .533 and finished with nine kills for the Pride, which hit .272 as a team and trailed just once over the final two sets.
•
Lauren Gips '25 led all players with 18 kills and three blocks, junior
Zoe Ackerman dished out 28 assists and senior
Sophia Shaw tied for match-high honors with 16 kills to pace the Beavers, who finished the match with just one service ace.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (19-6, 9-1 NEWMAC) has won five of its last seven matches and cruised to a 3-0 sweep of Clark in its regular season home finale on Tuesday night.
• Sophomore
Angelina Holm hit .818 and led all players with 10 kills, first-year
Liberty May added six kills on eight swings and Ackerman contributed 21 assists and two service aces for the Beavers, who hit a blistering .368 as a team in the win.
• Allen (2.63 k/s) is hitting .225 on the year and .249 over the last 10 matches, junior
Hailey Fouche is averaging 2.33 kills and Holm
(2.06 k/s, 0.84 blocks/set) ranks sixth in the conference with a .335 hitting percentage.
• First-year
Ailsa Munro ranks third in the league averaging 0.96 blocks per set, Ackerman ranks second in the NEWMAC in both assists per set (8.80) and service aces (60), and Shaw is fourth in the conference in both total digs (357) and digs per set (3.92).
SCOUTING THE PRIDE
• Springfield (22-5, 9-1 NEWMAC) has won three straight matches after cruising to a road sweep of Salve Regina on Tuesday night.
• Ahunna James recorded nine kills, Alexa Bonato added eight kills and Colosimo handed out 26 assists for the Pride, which made just eight errors and hit .242 on the night.
• Jodi Saelua (2.28 k/s, 1.00 b/s) leads the team in both kills and blocks and ranks second in the NEWMAC with a .368 hitting percentage, Emily Keaveney is averaging 2.20 kills and 2.60 digs per set, and James is contributing 2.02 kills and 2.34 digs per set.
• Colosimo ranks third in the conference in assists per set (8.67) and leads the team with 53 service aces, while Olivia Nealy is averaging a team-best 3.73 digs per set.
WHAT'S AT STAKE
• With both teams entering the match at 9-1 in league play, the winner will be the second seed while the loser drops to the third seed in next week's NEWMAC Tournament.
• In addition to battling for conference tournament seeding, the Beavers are currently sitting at No. 28 in Friday's Division III NPI rankings, which is used to determine the 21 at-large selections to the NCAA Tournament.
• The Green and White is one of three NEWMAC teams currently among the top 35 along with No. 9 MIT and No. 32 Springfield.
• The final at-large team to make last year's NCAA Tournament was ranked 39th in the NPI.
RARE COMPANY
• With a win on Saturday, the Beavers have a chance to finish with 10 conference victories for the first time in program history.
• Babson went 9-1 in 2014, 2019 and 2021 and finished 9-2 in 2023 when the NEWMAC added Salve Regina to become a 12-team league.
• A victory over the Pride would help the Green and White match the 2014, 2019 and 2021 squads with at least nine conference wins and 20 overall wins in the regular season.
VETERAN MILESTONES
• Shaw, who played in the 100th and 101st matches of her career last Saturday, became the 12th player in program history to surpass 1,000 career digs with 13 in the loss to Union.
• Allen, who passed Alyson Yablonskie '03 for sixth place on the program's all-time list last Saturday, has 892 career kills and also ranks 10th all-time with 933.0 points.
RISING IN THE RECORD BOOKS
• Ackerman ranks 11th in single-season history with 846 assists and 60 aces this fall, and her 168 career aces are good for sixth on the Beavers' all-time list.
• Munro's 80 total blocks this fall are currently rank 12th on Babson's single-season list, while Shaw's career-high 357 digs are tied for 14th on the program's single-season chart.
BEAVER BITES
• Over the last three matches, Holm is averaging 2.60 kills per set on a .373 hitting percentage.
• Fouche has recorded 10 or more kills in four of the last six matches and in 12 outings since October 4 is averaging 2.68 kills and 0.88 blocks per set while hitting .236.
• Shaw has finished with at least 12 digs in 12 straight contests and is averaging 4.26 digs per set during this stretch.
• Over her last 10 matches, Allen boasts a .249 hitting percentage and has finished with at least eight kills on eight occasions.
• First-year
Misaki Harte has at least one service ace in seven consecutive matches and has finished with two or more aces in nine of the last 13 contests.
• Munro has finished with four or more total blocks nine times over the last 12 matches and is averaging 1.27 blocks per set during this stretch.
• Ackerman has handed out 40 or more assists six times over the last 10 matches and has finished with at least 30 assists and nine digs five times during this run.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 7-2 on the road this season.
• Babson is 18-3 this fall and 35-5 over the last two seasons when winning the first set.
• The Green and White is 15-0 this year and has won 50 straight matches over the last three years when hitting .200 or better.
• The Beavers are 13-1 this season when recording more blocks than their opponents.
NEXT UP
• Babson will host a NEWMAC Tournament quarterfinal on Tuesday at 7 p.m. inside Staake Gymnasium.
