No. 22 Women's Volleyball vs. Wellesley
NEWMAC Tournament Quarterfinal
Tuesday, November 10 | 7 p.m. 
Staake Gymnasium | Babson Park, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 14-34 all-time against Wellesley in a series that dates back to 1980.
•    The Beavers have dominated the series as of late, winning eight consecutive matches and recording victories in 12 of their last 13 meetings versus the Blue since 2014. 
•    Nine of the last 11 matches between the squads have been decided in either four or five sets, which includes needing a decisive fifth set four times during this stretch. 
•    The Green and White has won eight consecutive matches against Wellesley inside Staake Gymnasium. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY 
•    Babson is just 1-6 all-time against Wellesley in the conference playoffs although the teams have not met since the 2017 semifinals. 
•    The Beavers were swept by the Blue in the NEWMAC quarterfinals in 2002, 2007 and 2011, and their only conference playoff victory was a four-set triumph over Wellesley in the 1993 NEW 8 quarterfinals. 
•    In addition to the conference tournament matchups, Babson swept the Blue in the second round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament inside Staake Gymnasium. 

LAST MEETING
•    Senior Hailey Fouche provided 11 kills and five blocks, sophomore Devon Burke added 10 kills and junior Sabina Frosk led all players with 21 kills as Babson defeated the Blue in four sets, 25-14, 23-25, 25-14, 25-17, on September 29 in Wellesley, Mass. 
•    Senior Zoe Ackerman handed out 33 assists, sophomore Ailsa Munro added eight kills and junior Angelina Holm led all players with seven blocks and four service aces for the Beavers, who ended the night with a .287 hitting percentage. 
•    Delia Noel totaled 11 kills and eight digs, Else Kunze-Hoeg recorded 10 kills, 20 assists and 11 digs, and Evelyn Hill added eight kills for the Blue, which made 29 attack errors and finished with its third-lowest hitting percentage of the season (.060). 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS 
•    Top-seeded and 22nd-ranked Babson (22-5) has won five straight matches and 10 of its last 11 after defeating Springfield in four sets in Saturday's regular season finale, 25-18, 21-25, 25-19, 25-20. 
•    Munro recorded 10 kills and four blocks, Holm added eight kills and five blocks, and Ackerman finished with 34 assists, 11 digs, three blocks and three service aces for the Beavers, who hit .333 over the final two sets. 
•    Fouche boasts a .301 hitting percentage and ranks among the top-10 in the league in kills (2.94), blocks (0.77) and points per set (3.34), Burke is averaging 2.59 kills per set and Munro (2.38 k/s) ranks fourth in the conference in blocks per set (0.91) and is second with a .338 hitting percentage. 
•    Holm (1.83 k/s, 0.91 b/s) is fifth in the NEWMAC in blocks per set, Ackerman ranks fourth in Division III in assists per set (10.30) and is second in the league with 66 service aces, and Frosk leads the defense averaging a team-high 4.13 digs per set. 

SCOUTING THE BLUE
•    Eight-seeded Wellesley (12-13) has dropped eight straight matches after dropping a four-set decision (20-25, 25-22, 26-24, 25-17) at Smith in Saturday's regular season finale. 
•    Kunze-Hoeg produced 13 kills, 20 assists, six digs and five aces, Ella Mancuso hit .241 and totaled 13 kills, and Caroline Meyer led all players with 16 digs to go along with three service aces for the Blue, which hit .333 in winning the first set but just .125 over the final three games. 
•    Noel (2.79 k/s, 1.41 d/s) is hitting .000 over the last five matches, Evie Hill is averaging 2.49 kills per set and Mancuso (2.24 k/s) is second on the team with 52 total blocks and has 32 kills while hitting .339 over the last two matches. 
•    Brianna Milliken ranks third in the NEWMAC in blocks per set (0.92), Kunze-Hoeg dishes out 7.83 assists per set to go along with 2.06 digs and 1.62 kills per set, and Meyer leads the defense averaging 3.56 digs per set. 

PLAYOFF SUCCESS
•     The Beavers have been victorious in their last nine NEWMAC quarterfinal appearances dating back to 2014. 
•    Babson has reached the semifinals of 11 consecutive conference tournaments and has captured four NEWMAC championships (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019) since 2014. 
•    The Beavers are 10-1 in conference tournament matches inside Staake Gymnasium dating back to 2014. 
•    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.

FROSK EARNS FINAL CONFERENCE WEEKLY HONOR
•    After averaging 4.57 digs per set in wins over Clark and Springfield, Frosk was tabbed as the NEWMAC Defensive Player of the Week on Monday. 
•    She had 20 digs, which was one shy of her season high in a three-set match, against the Cougars and followed it up with 12 digs as the Beavers limited the Pride to a .162 hitting percentage on Saturday. 

ASSAULT ON THE RECORD BOOKS
•    Ackerman, who already ranks first in program history with 248 service aces, enters Tuesday's match needing just four assists to pass the Beavers' all-time record of 3,912 set by Elizabeth Cameron '20 from 2016-19. 
•    Ackerman, who is sitting on 989 assists for the year, can also join Cameron as the only setters in program history to reach 1,000 assists in a season three times with 11 more. 
•    Fouche has moved into ninth place on Babson's all-time list with 777 kills and ranks 11th all-time in points (942.5) in addition to joining Kristin Carosotto '20, Lauren Gips '25, Lorraine Mackiewicz '16 and Caitlin O'Neill '10 as one of five players in school history to surpass 700 kills and 200 blocks. 

TRENDS TO WATCH
•    First-year Lia Gonzalez (2.02 k/s, 2.06 d/s) has recorded double-digit kills on six occasions this season and has finished with at least five digs in nine consecutive matches. 
•    Over the last seven matches, Holm is hitting .346 while providing 2.39 kills per set. 
•    Munro is hitting .356 and averaging 2.80 kills and 1.09 blocks per set over the Beavers' last 14 matches. 
•    Over her last 16 matches dating back to September 19, Frosk is averaging 4.61 digs per set. 
•    Ackerman has handed out at least 30 assists in 18 straight matches going back to September 22.
•    Fouche has provided at least seven kills in 24 of 27 outings this fall while finishing with double-digit kills 18 times. 
•    Sophomore Misaki Harte has registered multiple service aces in four straight contests and six of the last eight matches dating back to October 20.
•    In the Beavers' victories over Clark and Springfield, sophomore Liberty May averaged 3.00 kills per set to go along with a .444 hitting percentage. 
•    Burke has recorded at least six kills in six consecutive outings since October 24. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    Babson is 11-1 at home this season and 45-5 inside Staake Gymnasium since the start of the 2023 campaign.
•    The Beavers are 21-1 when hitting .200 or better and 22-2 when recording more kills than their opponents this fall.
•    The Green and White is 15-0 on the year when finishing with more digs than its foes. 
•    Babson is 14-1 this year and 30-2 over the last two seasons when it produces more blocks than its opponents.

UP NEXT
•    The winner of Tuesday's quarterfinal will face either fourth-seeded Smith or fifth-seeded Springfield in a semifinal match on Saturday at the highest remaining seed.