Women’s Volleyball defeated by Babson, 3-1, In Matchup of Regionally-Ranked Foes

(Babson Park, Mass.) The Rivier University Women's Volleyball team dropped a four set match (20-25, 12-25, 25-12, 17-25) to Babson College this evening in a non-conference women's volleyball match between regionally-ranked foes on Thursday night at Staake Gymnasium.

Rivier, ranked 12th in the regional poll, lost for just the second time in its last 20 matches to 18-5 on the year, while Babson, which is ranked 11th in the latest NEWVA poll, has won four of its last five matches and is 17-6 overall.

Junior Dana Mott (Medway, Mass.) finished with 11 kills and three blocks for the Raiders. Classmate Molly McCormack (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) chipped in with 10 kills and 14 digs, while senior Emily O'Reilly (San Francisco, Calif.) dished out a match-high 37 assists in the loss.

Senior Alicia Wilde (Franklin, Mass.) led a balanced attack with nine kills and 13 digs, while junior Jenny Karnes (Houston, Texas) added seven kills and four blocks for Babson. Senior Krissy Robertson (Dedham, Mass.) finished with 18 assists, six digs and three blocks, while classmate Elizabeth Sullivan (Quincy, Mass.) led all players with 22 digs for the Beavers. Fellow senior Angela Price (Medway, Mass.) contributed 11 assists and nine digs, and junior Alana Atchison (Pembroke, Mass.) led all players with six blocks.

The Green and White got three kills from senior Mary Donahue (Braintree, Mass.) and survived six ties and five lead changes by pulling away late to win the opening set. The Beavers then took advantage of 13 Rivier errors and used seven consecutive points on the serve of Sullivan to grab a two-set lead.

The Raiders responded though, hitting .286 in the third set and using a pair of five-point runs on the serves of sophomore Bethany Trevino (Westminster, Colo.) and Mott to cut their deficit in half with a 13-point victory. Rivier then erased an early 5-1 deficit in game four with a seven-point run on the serve of first-year Kuuipo Hoover (Dover, N.H.) to take its biggest lead of the frame at 8-5.

Babson came right back, getting a pair of kills from Wilde as part of a 6-0 run to go back in front 11-8. The Raiders pulled even at 14 on an error by the hosts, but the Beavers ripped off nine of the next 11 points, capped by a block assist from Karnes and Mackiewicz to build a commanding 23-16 on their way to closing out the match.

Both teams return to action on Saturday at 12 p.m. as Rivier travels to Norwich to face the host Cadets and Albertus Magnus, while Babson takes on Roger Williams and Ithaca at Wellesley.