Women's Volleyball at Roger Williams Invitational 
vs. Neumann | 11 a.m.
at Roger Williams | 3 p.m.
Saturday, September 5 | Campus Recreation Center | Bristol, R.I. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    Babson will open the 2026 season with matches against Neumann and the host-Hawks at the Roger Williams Invitational on Saturday. 

SERIES HISTORY
vs. Neumann
•    First meeting

vs. Roger Williams 
•    Babson is 12-9 all-time against the Hawks in a series that dates back to 1998.
•    The Beavers have won five in a row since 2017 and seven of their last eight matches versus Roger Williams going back to 2015. 
•    The Green and White, which will face the Hawks in Bristol, R.I., for the first time since 2013 on Saturday, recorded a 25-15, 26-24, 25-13 victory in the last meeting between the squads back on October 5, 2024, in Babson Park. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Babson (0-0) returns 15 players from a team that finished the year at 23-8 overall after advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. 
•    The Beavers bring back five of their top six hitters led by senior Hailey Fouche (2.35 kills/set), who hit a career-best .225 last fall, classmate Allison Molendyk (2.25 k/s) and sophomore Liberty May (1.95 k/s). 
•    Junior Angelina Holm (2.01 k/s, 0.88 blocks/set) ranked fourth in the NEWMAC with a .331 hitting percentage last fall, while sophomore Ailsa Munro (1.63 k/s, 0.91 b/s) hit .298 and was tied for second in the league with 98 total blocks. 
•    Senior Zoe Ackerman ranked second in the conference in both assists per set (8.98) and service aces (69), and junior Sabina Frosk finished third on the team in both total digs (225) and digs per set (1.86). 

SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS
•    Neumann (1-0) opened its 2026 campaign by rallying for a 3-1 victory over Cedar Crest (Pa.) on Tuesday night. 
•    Julia Solomon finished with 12 kills and two blocks, Melissa Eddy added nine kills, nine digs and four service aces, and Emma Kovacs provided 16 assists and 10 digs for the Knights, who hit .400 after dropping the first set. 
•    Solomon (2.78 k/s) and Eddy (2.51 k/s, 3.04 digs/set) both earned all-league honors for Neumann, which brings back 10 players from a team that went 15-15 and reached the Atlantic East Conference semifinals in 2025.
•    Kyla Carney handed out 7.06 assists per set, Hannah Strohm led the team in digs per set (4.22) and Soleil-La'Jour Staggs contributed 78 total blocks last fall. 

SCOUTING THE HAWKS
•    Roger Williams (1-0) opened the season with a 3-1 win over Salve Regina on Tuesday night. 
•    Rylie Eisenhard led all players with 16 kills, Angela West contributed seven blocks and Ava Lombardo had 28 assists and 10 digs for the Hawks, who finished 15-11 and advanced to the CNE semifinals in 2025.
•    Roger Williams returns nine players, including Peyton Felix (1.95 k/s, 0.84 b/s) and West (1.91 k/s, 0.84 b/s), who led the team with a .297 hitting percentage. 
•    Kaydence Fish (1.12 b/s) was second in the CNE in blocks, Angela McGonagle handed out 5.27 assists over 30 sets and Marianna Hernandez averaged a team-high 3.89 digs per set in 2025. 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2025
•    Led by head coach Eric Neely, who is now in his 16th season at Babson, the Beavers surpassed 20 wins for the eighth consecutive season while reaching the NEWMAC Tournament final for the first time since 2022 and the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time since 2014. 
•    Ackerman and Holm both earned All-NEWMAC first-team honors and joined Fouche and Isabella Allen '26 in receiving both AVCA Region II first-team and AVCA All-America honorable mention accolades. 
•    The Beavers ranked 37th in Division III in hitting percentage (.225) and 44th in blocks per set (2.01), and six of their eight losses came against teams that ranked in the top 11 of the final NPI rankings. 

REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS
•    Ackerman, who joined Elizabeth Cameron '20 as the only players to record 1,000 assists in multiple seasons, set a new single-season record with 1,086 assists and also served up 74 aces, which were just three shy of the single-season program record and the most by any Babson player since 2001. 
•    Munro's 98 blocks were the third-most in single-season history, while Holm is now fourth on the single-season charts in hitting percentage (.331) and fifth in total blocks (93). 
•    The duo of Munro and Holm became the first in Babson history to record at least 90 blocks in the same season.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
•    Ackerman ranks third in Babson history with 2,965 assists behind only Cameron (3,912) and Kathleen Lynch '13, who doled out 3,631 over her four-year career, and also ranks fifth all-time with 183 career service aces. 
•    Fouche enters the opening weekend of the season needing just five kills to reach 500 for her career. 

POLL POSITION
•    After recording its best conference record in program history (10-1) last fall, Babson was picked to finish second when the NEWMAC released its preseason coaches' poll back in August. 
•    The Beavers, who have finished either first or second six times in eight seasons going back to 2017, totaled 110 points to come in behind reigning conference champions MIT, which received 11 first-place votes. 
•    The Green and White also received the second-highest point total (155) of any team outside the AVCA Division III Preseason Top 25, which was released last week.  

BEAVER BITES
•    Ackerman has finished with at least one service ace in 19 consecutive matches dating back to October 4 of last season.
•    Sophomore Devon Burke recorded seven or more kills in each of the final six matches of the 2025 campaign.
•    Holm totaled at least five kills in each of Babson's final nine matches last season and had two or more blocks in each of the team's five postseason outings.
•    Munro enters the 2026 campaign with at least one block in 11 consecutive matches. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers have opened with a win in 10 consecutive seasons going back to 2015. 
•    Babson went 21-4 when winning the first set and 12-1 when taking a two-set lead last season.
•    The Green and White is 54-1 when hitting .200 or better since the start of the 2023 campaign. 
•    The Beavers are 29-2 over the last two seasons when recording at least 10 service aces. 

UP NEXT
•    Babson will take on Lasell in its home opener inside Staake Gymnasium next Tuesday at 6 p.m.