ITHACA, N.Y.—The Babson College women's volleyball team split a pair of matches against nationally-ranked opponents to conclude the Bomber Invitational on Saturday inside Ben Light Gymnasium. The Beavers swept 13th-ranked Carnegie Mellon (25-22, 25-16, 25-22) before suffering a three-set loss (25-20, 27-25, 25-14) to No. 12 Ithaca.
Babson, which also defeated No. 9 Johns Hopkins on Friday night, is now 5-1 overall after being dealt its first loss of the season by the Bombers. The Beavers, Carnegie Mellon (6-1) and Ithaca (5-2) all went 2-1 in the tournament.
Babson 3, Carnegie Mellon 0
Senior
Hailey Fouche (Montclair, N.J.) led all players with 11 kills, while junior
Angelina Holm (Denver, Colo.) and sophomore
Ailsa Munro (Sylmar, Calif.) each registered seven kills and combined to hit .600 to pace the Beavers' offense. Sophomores
Liberty May (Grapevine, Texas) and
Devon Burke (Newtonville, Mass.) added six and five kills, respectively, senior
Zoe Ackerman (Aurora, Colo.) dished out 32 assists and junior
Sabina Frosk (Coppell, Texas) had a team-high eight digs to go along with a season-best four service aces in the win.
First-year Ellie Corsello (Mill Valley, Calif.) and sophomore Caroline Smith (Collegeville, Pa.) each registered seven kills, classmate Dani Lee (San Francisco, Calif.) had a team-high 14 assists and junior Brynn Shearn (Englewood, Colo.) and senior Zoe Gavros (Tiburon, Calif.) both contributed eight digs to lead the Tartans.
Carnegie Mellon led by as many as five at 17-12 before the Green and White stormed back to steal the opening set. The Tartans responded to a five-point run by the Beavers with a kill by Smith to help regain a two-point advantage, but Holm followed with a kill and an ace before another kill by Munro put Babson in front 20-19. Fouche contributed a block and a kill to make it 23-21, and Munro and May combined on a block for a 24-21 advantage that it would not relinquish.
Down 6-2 early in the second, the Green and White scored seven consecutive points including a trio of aces by Frosk and two kills by Holm to go in front for good. Babson recorded 14 kills and hit .417 in the frame to pull away for a two-set lead.
Carnegie Mellon led by as many as five in game three before the Beavers went on a seven-point highlighted by three kills from first-year
Lia Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.) to grab a 15-11 edge. The Tartans pulled even twice late in the frame but Fouche gave Babson the lead for good at 22-21 with a kill and Frosk closed out the match with an ace.
Babson hit .301 in the victory and held Carnegie Mellon to a season-low 33 kills.
Ithaca 3, Babson 0
Fouche led all players with 11 kills, Munro and Gonzalez added five kills apiece, and Ackerman handed out 26 assists to pace the Beavers. Holm recorded four blocks and Frosk tied for match-high honors with eight digs in the loss.
Junior Jayden Wiese (Wildwood, Mo.) recorded eight kills and senior Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu (Hialeah, Fla.) and sophomore Addison Leadbetter (Glenview, Ill.) both totaled seven kills for the Bombers, who hit .202 in the victory. Leabetter led all players with seven total blocks, senior Wesley Slavin (Mill Valley, Calif.) had 13 assists and graduate student Karina Garcia (El Paso, Texas) finished with eight digs and two service aces.
Babson led for much of the first set before back-to-back service aces by Garcia sparked a six-point run that gave Ithaca a 21-16 lead. The Green and White pulled within 22-20 on an ace by Ackerman, but Gonzalez-Abreu answered with consecutive kills before Slavin served up an ace to end the frame.
Game two featured 13 ties and four lead changes with the Bombers erasing a late deficit to build a two-set lead. The Beavers got kills from May and Gonzalez as part of a three-point run to grab a 20-17 advantage, while Holm added a kill and a block to extend the margin to 24-20 before the hosts answered with four straight points. May gave Babson a 25-24 lead with a kill but Ithaca took advantage of a service error to pull even before back-to-back blocks by Leadbetter gave it a commanding lead.
The Bombers scored six consecutive points to break a 9-9 deadlock in the third and took advantage of 12 attack errors by the Beavers to close out the match.
Babson returns to action on Friday when it opens the New England Fall Classic against UMass Dartmouth at 4 p.m. inside Staake Gymnasium.
MATCH NOTES
• Saturday's match was the first in program history for Babson against Carnegie Mellon, and it is now 0-4 all-time versus Ithaca.
• Fouche has now recorded double-digit kills in eight of the last nine matches going back to November of last season.
• The Beavers have recorded more kills than their opponents in each of their last 30 victories dating back to the end of the 2024 campaign.
• With its wins over Johns Hopkins on Friday and Carnegie Mellon on Saturday, the Green and White is 26-4 since the start of last season when claiming the first set.
