The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference

Wellesley, Mass. - Led by first-year middle hitter Arcadia Paine (Durango, CO), who amassed 14 kills on 18 attempts, Wellesley swept Babson 3-0 in a NEWMAC Championship quarterfinal match at Wellesley College. The Beavers'

season comes to a close with a record of 11-12. The #2-seeded Blue advance to the Friday's NEWMAC semifinals, with a 7:30 match against #3-seed Springfield College at 7:30 p.m. at MIT. Host and #1-seed MIT will face Coast Guard at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The winners meet in the championship match at 4:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Wellesley jumped out to a quick lead in game one, taking a 13-5 lead with four-point serving runs from Emily Peters (Temescal Valley, CA) and Victoria Peng (Diamond Bar, CA). The Blue then coasted to a 30-14 victory in the opening set.

Babson re-grouped and took a 4-1 lead to start game two before Wellesley rebounded to tie the game at 6-6. The score remained tight until the Blue's Billie Briones (Sonoma, CA) scored five points on her serve to give Wellesley the lead at 16-10. After trading sideouts, Babson went on a brief run of its own when setter Mandi Blackmer (Honeoye, NY) served four straight points, including two aces, to trim the Wellesley lead to 26-22. But Wellesley won the next four rallies to take the game 30-22, giving them a 2-0 lead in the match.

Game three was a see-saw affair as the teams traded sideouts and battled for momentum throughout the first half of the set. With the score knotted at 16, Wellesley went on a tear, taking 11 consecutive points to break away for good. The Blue held on for a 30-20 win.

Babson was led by Caitlin O'Neill (Lynnfield, MA), Amanda Medin (Baltimore, MD), and Tina Kaindl (Niederteuten, Austria) with five kills each. Carlen Palau (Silver Spring, MD) chipped in four kills and 12 digs, while Blackmer tallied 18 assists and nine digs in the effort.

Paine led the Blue at the net with 14 kills, followed by Madeleine Brumley (Lafeyette, LA) with seven kills. Heather Mellquist (Baltimore, OH) and Jessica Duff (Milton, Abingdon, UK) recorded five kills each. Briones and Peng shared the setting duties, tallying 23 and 21 assists, respectively. Peters once again anchored the backrow for the Blue, notching 12 digs, while Naomi Iwata (Seattle, WA) added nine.

Women's Volleyball: Wellesley 3, Babson 0

Babson 16 22 20

Wellesley 30 30 30

Wellesley Volleyball Advances Over Babson, 3-0