BRISTOL, R.I.—The trio of senior
Hailey Fouche (Montclair, N.J.) sophomore
Liberty May (Grapevine, Texas) and first-year
Lia Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.) combined for 46 kills while hitting .481 to lead the Babson College women's volleyball team to a pair of three-set victories at the Roger Williams Invitational on Saturday afternoon.
The Beavers defeated Neumann University 25-14, 25-12, 25-18 in their opening match of the day and followed it up with a 25-10, 25-17, 25-19 triumph over the host Hawks. The Green and White begins the year at 2-0, Neumann is 1-3 and Roger Williams is now 3-2 overall.
Babson 3, Neumann 0
Fouche hit .625 and led all players with 11 kills, Gonzalez hit .750 and totaled 10 kills in 12 swings, and May finished with a career-high seven service aces and four kills to lead the Green and White. First-year
Maya Foley (Allentown, N.J.) was error-free with five kills in seven attempts, senior
Zoe Ackerman (Aurora, Colo.) doled out 30 assists and junior
Sabina Frosk (Coppell, Texas) registered a match-high 12 digs in the win.
Junior Melissa Eddy (Dover, Del.) had six kills and four digs and first-year Amiya Carter (Norristown, Pa.) contributed 11 assists and five digs to lead the Knights.
Babson trailed 6-3 early in the opening set before rattling off 11 of the next 12 points to go in front 14-7 after back-to-back aces by May. Neumann got back within five three times before Beavers closed with a 7-2 spurt that included two aces apiece from Frosk and May.
The Green and White raced out to a 15-2 lead in the second set and then recorded 16 kills while hitting .652 in game three to put the match away. Gonzalez and Foley combined for nine kills and Fouche and sophomore
Devon Burke (Newton, Mass.) added three apiece in the final frame.
Babson 3, Roger Williams 0
Fouche, Gonzalez and May each provided seven kills, Burke totaled five and Ackerman dished out 30 assists to go along with eight digs to pace the Beavers. Sophomore
Misaki Harte (San Jose, Calif.) led all players with six aces to go along with six digs, while Frosk registered a match-high 10 digs in the win.
Junior Angela West (Riverview, Fla.) and first-year Rylie Eisenhard (Pottstown, Pa.) each recorded six kills, while sophomore Ava McGonagle (Reading, Mass.) contributed 11 assists, nine digs and two aces to pace the Hawks.
Harte served up all six of her aces during a 13-point run that gave the Green and White a 20-4 lead late in game one. Roger Williams pulled even at 11-all on a service ace by McGonagle midway through the second set before back-to-back kills by Fouche sparked a 9-2 run that gave Babson a 20-13 advantage.
The Beavers raced out to an 11-4 lead in the third and used kills from Burke and Fouche as well as an ace from first-year
Sara Arango (Miami, Fla.) during a five-point spurt that reestablished a 17-9 advantage on the way to closing out the match.
Babson is back in action next Tuesday when it faces Lasell in its home opener at 6 p.m.
MATCH NOTES
• The Beavers are now 13-9 all-time and have won six in a row against Roger Williams dating back to 2015, and are 1-0 versus Neumann.
• Fouche surpassed 500 career kills in the victory over Neumann, while Ackerman became just the third player in program history along with Kathleen Lynch '13 and Elizabeth Cameron '20 to surpass 3,000 career assists.
• Babson finished with 14 service aces in each match and is now 31-2 since the start of the 2024 campaign when recording 10 or more aces.
• The Beavers' .500 hitting percentage in the win over Neumann is its best since September 6 of last year when it hit .571 in a three-set triumph over Keystone (Pa.).
