Women’s Volleyball Falls to Babson in First Ever NEWMAC Championship Appearance

The Emerson women’s volleyball team fell to the No. 1 seed Babson Beavers 3-0 in their first ever trip to the NEWMAC Championship game on Saturday, November 9, in Babson Park. The Lions defeated No. 2 seeded Wellesley, and No. 3 seeded MIT on their way to the title game.

The first set was a back-and-forth affair, with neither side holding more than a four-point lead the whole set. Emerson opened up with a 5-3 lead on a Grace Tepper ’21 kill. Babson came back and tied the score at 10 apiece.

The Lions and Beavers traded points in the set until Babson went on a four-point run after Albany Alexander ’21 knotted the score at 16, taking a 20-16 lead. The Lions rattled off five straight points to take a 21-20 lead, and held their lead at 22-21 on a Tepper kill. Babson took four straight points behind three kills from Allie Puccio to take the first set, 25-22.

Babson jumped out to an early lead in the second set, opening up a 12-4 lead after 16 points and bringing Emerson to use their first timeout. The Lions took the next point out of the timeout, but the Beavers took the next seven points to bring their lead to 19-6. Babson scored five more before the Lions took three straight behind kills from Tepper and Logan Steenbergen ’23, but the Beavers closed out the set, 25-10.

Emerson and Babson split the first six points of the third set, with Carolyn Vaimoso ’22 getting the lone kill for the Lions. Babson opened up a lead at 10-5 over the Lions, and extended it to 10 at 17-7.

The Lions continued to battle, with Jillian Kay ’23 and Tepper earning kills to cut the lead to nine. Babson was able to hold course and take the victory in the third set, 25-14, and the match, 3-0.

Over the course of the match, Tepper had nine kills and six digs; Steenbergen had six kills; and Caroline Bond ’23 had 19 assists and 13 digs.

For more stats, visit Emerson Lions.