CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Senior
Zoe Ackerman (Aurora, Colo.) became the program's all-time leader in service aces as No. 25 AVCA/No. 14 NPI Babson College split a pair of matches at the New England Challenge inside Rockwell Cage on Saturday.
The Beavers won the opening set before dropping a four-set decision (22-25, 27-25, 25-23, 25-20) to Tufts University in their opening match of the day before rebounding with a 25-18, 25-21, 25-14 sweep of Williams College. Babson, which won two of three matches at the New England Challenge, has won five of its last six overall to improve to 17-5 on the year.
Tufts 3, Babson 1
Sophomore
Devon Burke (Newtonville, Mass.) registered 13 kills, classmate
Ailsa Munro (Sylmar, Calif.) hit .526 while providing 11 kills and five blocks, and junior
Angelina Holm (Denver, Colo.) finished with nine kills, four blocks and four service aces to lead the Beavers. Senior
Hailey Fouche (Montclair, N.J.) also had nine kills to go along with three blocks, Ackerman contributed 42 assists, six aces and six digs, and junior
Sabina Frosk (Coppell, Texas) chipped in with 22 digs in the loss.
Senior Claire Castor (Carmel, Ind.) posted a double-double with a match-high 15 kills and 11 digs, junior Celina Savage (Williamstown, Mass.) put away 13 kills and senior Rianna Liu (Foster City, Calif.) finished with 23 assists, 10 digs and three aces to pace the Jumbos. First-year Tessa Fergusson (Washington, D.C.) chipped in with five blocks and junior Dylan Whisenant (San Francisco, Calif.) totaled a team-high 19 digs in the victory.
The Green and White led by as many as seven in the opening set but needed a late rally to pull out a three-point victory. Tufts (16-7) used an 11-2 run to take a 21-20 lead but then made two straight errors before an ace by Ackerman gave Babson a 23-21 advantage. Holm and Burke then followed with back-to-back kills to end the stanza.
The Beavers rallied from an early four-point deficit to build a 16-11 lead and were up 23-19 late in the second before Tufts responded with five straight points to go in front by one. First-year
Lia Gonzalez's (Miami, Fla.) service ace put the Green and White back in front 25-24 but the Jumbos got kills from junior Miawenn Kamdje (Wellesley, Mass.) and Castor, and a block from Fergusson to close out a two-point win.
Both teams built leads of as many as four in the third set and Tufts hit .323 while responding with a point each of the four times Babson pulled within one down the stretch to take control of the match with a 25-23 victory. The Beavers rallied to take an 18-16 lead in the fourth before the Jumbos responded by scoring nine of the final 11 points to end the match.
Babson 3, Williams 0
Fouche hit .375 and led all players with 10 kills, Munro recorded eight kills and five blocks, and Ackerman added 30 assists, eight digs and four service aces to lead the Green and White. Frosk contributed 10 digs and three aces, and junior
Misaki Harte (San Jose, Calif.) chipped in with eight digs in the win.
Senior Keely Campuzano (Excelsior, Minn.) finished with eight kills and five blocks, sophomore Elsa Miller (Charlottesville, Va.) recorded four blocks and classmate Eve Kaplan (New York, N.Y.) led all players with 16 digs for the Ephs.
Babson jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead and saw its cushion balloon to 15-6 after three straight aces by Frosk en route to an easy first set win. The Beavers raced out to a 12-4 edge in game two and got two late kills from senior
Nora Whitehurst (Atlanta, Ga.) and one apiece from Burke and Munro after Williams (11-10) had pulled within three on three different occasions.
The Green and White forged a 10-4 lead in the third set and got four aces from Ackerman and three kills from Fouche as part of a 10-0 spurt to close out the sweep.
Babson returns to action on Tuesday when it hosts Salve Regina at 7 p.m.
TOURNAMENT NOTES
• The Beavers are now 3-23 all-time against Tufts and 6-8 versus Wiliams, which includes three straight victories in the series.
• Babson is now 15-17 all-time in 11 seasons of the New England Challenge and finished 2-1 for the third year in a row.
• Ackerman, who was named to the New England Challenge All-Tournament Team, has 242 career service aces and passed Michelle Malone's '02 previous mark of 240.
• The Beavers are now 10-4 this fall in road and neutral court matches.
