No. 22 Women's Volleyball vs. Springfield
Saturday, November 7 | 3 p.m. 
Staake Gymnasium | Babson Park, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 11-21 all-time against Springfield in a series that dates back to 1998.
•    The Beavers have won two straight matches and nine of the last 13 contests versus the Pride since 2017.
•    The last three matches between the teams have been 3-0 affairs after eight of the previous 10 were decided in either four or five sets. 
•    The Green and White has dropped two of its last three matches inside Staake Gymnasium to the Pride, which includes a three-set loss in the 2024 regular season finale. 

LAST MEETING
•    Sophomores Devon Burke and Liberty May each recorded 10 kills and Babson finished with a .250 hitting percentage to sweep Springfield (25-23, 25-14, 25-21) in a NEWMAC Tournament semifinal on November 15, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. 
•    Fellow sophomore Ailsa Munro added eight kills, senior Zoe Ackerman handed out 33 assists to go along with three service aces, and Sophia Shaw '26 led all players with 17 digs for the Beavers, who erased a 23-19 deficit with six consecutive points in the opening stanza and hit .300 over the final two sets. 
•    Emily Keaveney totaled team highs of nine kills and 12 digs, Jodi Saelua and Ahunna James both provided eight kills and five blocks, and Tori Colosimo finished with 32 assists and 10 digs for the Pride,  which hit .216 but recorded a season-low two service aces in the loss. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    No. 22 Babson (21-5, 9-1 NEWMAC) has won four straight and nine of its last 10 matches after sweeping Clark (25-17, 25-14, 25-19) on Tuesday night in Worcester. 
•    May and senior Hailey Fouche both registered nine kills and combined to hit .394, Ackerman handed out 33 assists and junior Sabina Frosk led all players with 20 digs for the Beavers, who finished with 12 service aces and held the Cougars to a .036 hitting percentage. 
•    Fouche ranks sixth in the NEWMAC in kills per set (3.00) and seventh in hitting percentage (.308), Burke is averaging 2.57 kills per set and Munro (2.38 k/s, 0.91 b/s) is second in the league with a .341 hitting percentage and also ranks fifth in blocks per set. 
•    Junior Angelina Holm (1.82 k/s, 0.89 b/s, .285 hitting pct.) is among the top 10 in the conference in both blocks and hitting percentage, Ackerman ranks fourth in Division III in assists per set (10.38) and leads the NEWMAC with 63 service aces, and Frosk is averaging 4.06 digs per set, which is good for fifth in the league.

SCOUTING THE PRIDE
•    Springfield (20-5, 8-2 NEWMAC) has won six consecutive matches after breezing past Salve Regina, 25-11, 25-18, 25-22, on Tuesday night. 
•    Saelua recorded 10 kills and four blocks, James provided nine kills, eight digs, four blocks and two aces, and Delaney McGee added 27 assists, six kills and five digs for the Pride, which made just eight attack errors while hitting .315 in the victory. 
•    Saelua is averaging 2.86 kills per set and ranks second in the conference in blocks per set (1.05) and third in hitting percentage (.332), James (2.22 k/s, 2.57 d/s) has recorded at least eight kills in six of the last seven matches, and Alexa Bonato is contributing 2.13 kills per set.
•    Gabbie Weissgarber (1.65 k/s, 0.74 b/s) leads the team with 48 service aces, Colosimo (8.86 a/s, 2.83 d/s) ranks third in the NEWMAC in assists and Caroline Burg (2.68 d/s) is second on the squad in digs. 

WHAT'S AT STAKE
•    Babson, which secured at least a share of its first NEWMAC regular season title since 2021 thanks to MIT's win over Smith on Tuesday night, would capture its first outright regular season conference title in program history with a win on Saturday. 
•    The Beavers, who earned a share of the regular season league title in 2014, 2019 and 2021, are also looking to clinch the top seed next week's NEWMAC Tournament for the first time since 2021. 
•    Should the Green and White lose on Saturday, there is a possibility that it could finish in a five-way tie for first place at 9-2 along with Springfield, Emerson, MIT and Smith. If all five teams end up tied in the standings, the Beavers would still be the top seed in the tournament as long they avoid being swept by the Pride. 

POWER CONFERENCE
•    As of Friday morning, the NEWMAC is the only conference in Division III with five teams ranked among the top 31 in the NCAA Power Index (NPI) rankings. 
•    MIT remains the league's top-ranked squad at No. 6, Babson is 20th, Emerson is ranked 24th and Smith and Springfield are currently 27th and 31st, respectively. 
•    All five teams are in good position to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament with the current at-large cutline coming at No. 44. 

ASSIST RECORD IN SIGHT FOR ACKERMAN
•    After taking over as the program's all-time leader in service aces back on October 24, Ackerman enters Saturday's match just 37 assists away from Babson Hall of Famer Elizabeth Cameron's '20 all-time record of 3,912. 
•    The only player in Babson history with at least 900 assists in each of her four seasons, Ackerman needs 45 assists to match Cameron as the only setters in program history to surpass 1,000 assists in a season three times. 

FOUCHE EARNS CONFERENCE RECOGNITION
•    After averaging 3.00 kills per set and hitting .615 in two consecutive sweeps, Fouche was named NEWMAC Offensive Player of the Week on Monday. 
•    She opened the week with six kills and three blocks in a 3-0 win over Salve Regina before an error-free performance on Friday night that included 12 kills in 14 swings for a .857 hitting percentage in a rout of Endicott. 

FOUCHE JOINS THE CENTURY CLUB
•    Fouche continued to add to her list of milestones by playing in the 100th match of her career on Tuesday at Clark. 
•    She enters Saturday's regular season finale ranked ninth in program history with 771 kills and is 11th all-time with 935.0 points.  
•    Additionally, Fouche is one of just five players in program history with at least 700 kills and 200 blocks. 

TRENDS TO WATCH
•    Munro is hitting .363 and averaging 2.75 kills and 1.05 blocks per set over the Beavers' last 13 matches. 
•    Over her last 15 matches dating back to September 19, Frosk is averaging 4.73 digs per set. 
•    Ackerman has handed out at least 30 assists in 17 straight matches going back to September 22.
•    Fouche has provided at least seven kills in 24 of 26 outings this fall while finishing with double-digit kills 18 times.
•    First-year Lia Gonzalez (2.02 k/s, 2.10 d/s) has recorded double-digit kills on six occasions this season and has finished with at least five digs in nine consecutive matches. 
•    Sophomore Misaki Harte has registered multiple service aces in five of the last seven matches. 
•    Over the last five matches, Holm is hitting .359 while providing 2.47 kills per set. 
•    Burke's 11 kills in Friday's win over Endicott marked the seventh time this fall she has finished with double-digit putaways. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 10-1 this season and 16-2 over the last two years inside Staake Gymnasium. 
•    Babson is 20-1 this fall when hitting .200 or better and 21-2 when it records more kills and its opponents. 
•    The Green and White is 13-1 when recording more total blocks than its foes on the year.
•    The Beavers are 15-0 on the year and 61-1 over the last four seasons when their opponents finish with a hitting percentage of .150 or below.

UP NEXT
•    Babson will host a NEWMAC Tournament quarterfinal on Tuesday at 7 p.m.