BABSON PARK, Mass.—Junior
Angelina Holm (Denver, Colo.) finished with a season-high 15 kills to go along with six blocks and first-year
Lia Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.) recorded four of her 14 kills in the decisive fifth set as No. 25 AVCA/No. 14 NPI Babson College edged visiting Middlebury College, 25-15, 20-25, 25-13, 20-25, 15-9, on the opening night of the New England Challenge on Friday inside Staake Gymnasium.
Babson, which has won five consecutive matches, improves to 17-4 overall. Middlebury has dropped four of its last five contests to slip to 14-6 on the year.
Gonzalez also provided eight digs and a career-high six service aces, sophomore
Ailsa Munro (Sylmar, Calif.) hit .588 and registered 11 kills and five blocks, and senior
Zoe Ackerman (Aurora, Colo.) contributed season highs of 56 assists and six blocks to pace the Beavers. Junior
Sabina Frosk (Coppell, Texas) led all players with a season-high 26 digs, first-year
Sara Arango (Miami, Fla.) added 19 digs and senior
Hailey Fouche (Montclair, N.J.) chipped in with nine kills and 11 digs in the victory.
First-year Natalie Stanford (Mill Valley, Calif.) recorded 14 kills and 10 digs, senior Molly Harrison (Tiburon, Calif.) provided 12 kills and nine digs, and first-year Chloe Cunniffe (Pittsford, N.Y.) handed out 30 assists to go along with 11 digs and two blocks for the Panthers. Fellow rookie Eliza Lowe (Bethesda, Md.) contributed a team-high five blocks, while junior Annabella Rando (San Jose, Calif.) finished with 14 digs in the loss.
The fifth set featured seven ties and four early lead changes seized control before Babson seized control with a six-point run that included a pair of kills by Gonzalez and two aces from Ackerman to forge a 13-8 advantage. The visitors got back within four thanks to an error but the Green and White, which hit .348 in the stanza, got back-to-back kills from Gonzalez and Fouche to end the match.
Babson put away 16 kills and hit .306 while leading by as many as nine in a first-set victory. The Panthers hit .216 with 10 kills and took advantage of 11 attack errors by the hosts to take game two. The Beavers responded with a strong third-set performance, tallying 14 kills and hitting .370 while jumping out to a 19-7 lead for a 2-1 edge in the match.
Middlebury answered back in the fourth though, getting two kills apiece from Harrison and Lowe for an early 8-4 lead. The Green and White pulled even twice and cut its deficit to 21-20 on a block by Ackerman and Holm before the Panthers took advantage of two straight errors and consecutive kills by Stanford to push the match to a fifth set.
The Beavers finished with the edge in kills (62-44), digs (83-61), total blocks (12-6) and service aces (13-8) while hitting .226 on the night. They also held the visitors to their third-lowest hitting percentage (.139) of the season in the win.
Both teams return to action with a pair of matches beginning at 11 a.m. in Cambridge, Mass., as Babson takes on Tufts and Williams, while Middlebury faces MIT and Springfield.
MATCH NOTES
• The Beavers are 6-6 all-time against Middlebury and have won three straight matches in the series, which includes back-to-back five-set triumphs over the last two seasons.
• Babson is 14-16 all-time in the New England Challenge and has won five of its last seven matches since 2024.
• The Green and White is 3-1 this fall in five-set matches and 8-1 inside Staake Gymnasium.
• The Beavers are now 11-0 on the year when holding its opponents to a hitting percentage of .150 or worse.
