WORCESTER -- Four different Babson players reached double figures in kills as the visiting Beavers held off upset-minded WPI 3-2 in an over two-hour NEWMAC volleyball tilt inside Harrington Auditorium.  The guests took the match by scores of 25-15, 24-26, 25-14, 25-27, 15-8 to deliver head coach Eric Neely his 300th career victory.
 
Babson, winners of 14 straight matches since its lone setback to Franklin & Marshall back on September 6th, ups its record to 19-1 on the season and remains undefeated in conference action at 6-0.  WPI falls to 5-12 overall and 0-6 in NEWMAC play.
 
Isabella Allen (Williamsville, NY) smashed a game-high 17 kills for the Beavers while she was joined in double figures by Lauren Gips (Winter Park, FL), Hailey Fouche (Montclair, NH) and Lauren Griffin (Los Altos Hills, CA) with 15, 12 and 10 respectively.  All four hit over .200 on the night topped by Gips at .289 while Fouche added 13 digs for the Beavers only double-double of the contest.  Zoe Ackerman (Aurora, CO) was a dig short of joining her with a double-double, dishing out 55 assists to go along with nine digs, five aces and five blocks while Sophia Shaw (Novato, CA) posted 23 digs and three aces.
 
WPI's Lily Eldridge (Danvers, MA) collected her third double-double of the season.  The senior registered 15 kills, 19 assists and 12 digs.  Audrey Stroupe (Leesburg, VA) and Fiona Gillis (Manchester, NH) both belted 13 kills with Stroupe hitting a team-best .281 and setting a season-high in kills.  Anastasia Kelnik (Fair Lawn, NJ) also hit well, posting a .273 hitting percentage with nine kills and just three errors on 21 attempts.  Rookie Preslie Jerebker (Denver, CO) doled out 23 assists and amassed 17 digs, Victoria Escuer (Caracas, Venezuela) totaled 23 digs and Alana Harris (Lowell, MA) tallied 19 digs and three assists and Emily Hudson (Melrose, MA) swatted four blocks.
 
Babson jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the opening set and never trailed en route to capturing set one 25-16.  The Engineers responded with one their best hitting displays, totaling 16 kills with five errors in 33 attempts in the second set to hit .333.  The Beavers only committed two hitting errors while capturing the third set only to see WPI cash in on its fifth set point to take set four 27-25.   Similarly to the first frame, the guests rattled off nine of the next 10 points after a 1-1 tie, to seize the fifth and decisive set.
 
WPI is back on the court on Saturday, venturing to Cambridge for a tri-match at No. 4 MIT and Eastern (PA) beginning at 11am with an all-Engineers NEWMAC contest.  Babson is at home the same day, tangling with Smith beginning at 1pm.