WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – November 14, 2014 – The Colby-Sawyer women's volleyball team fell to the Babson Beavers, 3-0 on Wednesday evening in the NCAA Women's Volleyball First Round hosted by Williams College. Babson won by scores of 25-22, 25-22, and 25-23.

Babson (27-8) advances to the NCAA Second Round and will take on the winner of Williams versus Sage College tomorrow afternoon. Colby-Sawyer ends its season at 27-9.  
Babson took a back and forth first set, 25-22, which featured 11 ties. The Chargers jumped out to a 4-1 lead early on, but the Beavers responded with five straight points to take a 6-4 lead. Senior Sarah Hannon tied the score at 6-6 with an ace and the Chargers then scored the next point to take their second lead of the set. Babson scored the next three points to take a 9-7 lead. Junior Laura Smolinski knotted the set at 11-11 with an ace of her own for the sets fifth tie. The teams traded the next eight points before back-to-back kills by the Chargers forced a Babson timeout. Babson scored four of the next five points to take a 19-17 lead. With the score tied at 19-19, Babson received a pair of kills and a pair of blocks to take its biggest lead of the set at 23-19. The Beavers registered two of the last three points to win the first set 25-22.

The second set was a mirror image of the first with neither team leading by more than four. Babson came away with the 25-22 victory. The set featured 14 ties. The Chargers took a 20-19 lead on senior Jackie Keating's fourth kill of the set, but Babson scored the next four points on kills to take a 23-20 lead. The teams then traded the next four points on kills, which gave the Beavers the 25-22 second set victory.

Babson began the third set on a 13-5 run to take its biggest lead of the match. Colby-Sawyer clawed back with a 5-1 run to cut the deficit to 14-10. After Babson pushed its advantage back to six at 16-10, the Chargers scored the next four points on a Smolinski kill, a pair of blocks by Kelsey Sullivan and Gabrielle Rodriguez, and a Babson error. Colby-Sawyer cut the deficit to one at 17-16 on a Keating ace, but the Beavers scored five of the next six points to regain a comfortable five point edge at 22-17. The Chargers escaped four match points, but Babson received the final kill to take the set 25-23 and the match 3-0.  

Babson was led equally by Mary Donahue and Lorraine Mackiewicz with 10 kills each. The backline was defended by Kseniya Pulido's 21 digs and 3 blocks by Alana Atchinson and Mary Donahue.
 
Colby-Sawyer's Jackie Keating earned a match-high 12 kills and was backed by Lexi Strong with 16 digs.
 
Keating, one of the three seniors from Colby-Sawyer, said, "we worked hard every year…it was really fun to see how we progressed from freshman year to senior year, and I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else." Colby-Sawyer's Sarah Hannon, defensive specialist, and Stephanie Vecchio, outside hitter, will also graduate this year.