Women's Volleyball Tops Roger Williams, Falls To Ithaca at Wellesley Invitational

WELLESLEY, Mass.—The Babson College women's volleyball team split a pair of matches at the Wellesley College Invitational on Saturday afternoon, defeating Roger Williams, 3-1 (25-21, 25-15, 22-25, 25-19), before suffering a three-set defeat (25-14, 25-21, 25-21) to Ithaca College at Dorothy Towne Fieldhouse.

Senior Alicia Wilde (Franklin, Mass.) finished with a match-high 11 kills and added 18 digs to lead the Green and White in its opening match.  Classmate Mary Donahue (Braintree, Mass.) recorded 10 kills and junior Alana Atchison (Pembroke, Mass.) hit .316 with seven kills and eight blocks, matching her career high. Classmate Lorraine Mackiewicz (Edison, N.J.) contributed eight kills and four blocks, fellow junior Jenny Karnes (Houston, Texas) added seven kills and two blocks, and senior Elizabeth Sullivan (Quincy, Mass.) led all players with 27 digs. Classmates Krissy Robertson (Dedham, Mass.) and Angela Price (Medway, Mass.) combined for 38 assists and 13 digs in the victory.

Babson (18-7) jumped out to a quick 6-1 advantage and then responded with a 7-2 run after Roger Williams (13-8) had taken a one-point lead to regain control of the opening set. The Beavers led by as many as seven early in game two and got two kills from Wilde and another from Karnes as part of a 6-1 spurt that gave them a two-set advantage.

The Green and White dropped a close third set before rebounding to close out the match with a six-point victory in game four. Clinging to a two-point lead, Babson ripped off five straight points on the serve of Sullivan, including a pair of aces, to build its biggest lead of the frame at 18-11.

The Beavers were unable to complete a sweep of Saturday's matches as Ithaca (22-3) hit .281 for the match and .464 in the third set to win 3-0.

Mackiewicz hit .350 and finished with 10 kills, Wilde added seven kills, six digs, and three service aces, and Robertson dished out a team-high 18 assists. Sullivan chipped in with a team-high 13 digs for Babson.

The Green and White never led in the opening set, but jumped out to an 8-4 lead in game two behind a pair of kills from Mackiewicz. The Bombers rallied though, scoring eight of the next nine points to take the lead for good on their way to a two-set advantage. The third frame featured five early ties, the last coming at 8-8, before Ithaca broke away by scoring 13 of the next 18 points.

Babson returns to action on Tuesday when it hosts MIT at 6 p.m.

MATCH NOTES
• Babson is now 6-8 all-time against Roger Williams and picked up its first win over the Hawks since 2008.
• The Beavers are 16-3 this season away from home.
• Sullivan is now tied for third on the program's single-season list with 488 digs, and needs just 15 to become the school's all-time leader.
• Wilde is now fourth all-time with 876 kills, and with 22.0 points on Saturday, she became the fifth player in Babson history to surpass 1,000 career points.