NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — Smith College Volleyball (27-5, 9-2 NEWMAC) plays No. 12 MIT (24-4, 9-2 NEWMAC) for the NEWMAC Championship at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, at Babson College's Staake Gymnasium. The fourth-seeded Bears reached the final by beating top-seeded and No. 21 Babson in five sets Saturday. The second-seeded Engineers beat No. 6 seed Coast Guard in four. The winner earns the NEWMAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship.

MATCH INFO
NEWMAC Championship — No. 4 Smith vs. No. 2 MIT
Sunday, Nov. 15 | 1 p.m.
Staake Gymnasium | Babson Park, Mass.
Live video and stats: links on the GoSmithBears.com volleyball schedule

SERIES HISTORY

• MIT leads the all-time series 63-20. The first meeting was in 1977.
• The Engineers have won nine of the last 10 meetings, including the last two.
• Sunday is the fifth time the programs have met for the conference title. MIT won in 1987 and 1989. Smith won in 1988 and 2024.
• Smith's only win in the last 10 meetings was a 3-2 upset of top-seeded MIT in the 2024 NEWMAC final in Cambridge.

LAST MEETING

• MIT won 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 26-24) on Nov. 3 at Ainsworth Gymnasium. The match had 35 ties and 17 lead changes, and MIT's three set wins came by a combined seven points.
• Alison Chapin (Temecula, CA/Temecula Valley High School) had 19 kills on .447 hitting, eight of them in the fourth set. Addison Klunder (Los Angeles, CA/The Buckley School) (11 kills, 11 digs) and Mia Etheridge (Half Moon Bay, CA/Half Moon Bay) (10 kills, 11 digs) each had a double-double.
• Smith outhit MIT .237 to .232 and outblocked the Engineers 7-6. Sabine Smith led MIT with 22 kills, and Kayleigh May had 43 assists.

SCOUTING THE BEARS

• Smith came back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Babson 3-2 (26-24, 19-25, 19-25, 26-24, 15-8) in Saturday's semifinal. The Beavers' only two NEWMAC losses this season both came against Smith.
• Etheridge had 16 kills on .342 hitting in the semifinal. Anna Feuer (Frederick, MD/Governor Thomas Johnson) hit .471 with 11 kills and five blocks. Hana Suzuki (Chattanooga, TN/East Hamilton High School) (20 assists, 14 digs) and Skye Higashihara (Honolulu, HI/'Iolani School) (19 assists) ran the offense, and Ruth Tullis (Edmond, OK/Oklahoma Christian School) had 15 digs. Smith held Babson to -.083 hitting in the fifth set.
• On the season, Chapin leads the Bears with 313 kills (3.23 per set). Etheridge has 239 kills, and Feuer has 211 kills on .397 hitting with a team-best 129 blocks.
• Higashihara averages 5.45 assists per set. Tullis leads the back row with 261 digs (2.93 per set) and a .938 reception percentage. Suzuki leads the team with 60 aces.
• Smith is hitting .255 and holding opponents to .139. The Bears average 2.18 blocks per set.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS

• MIT beat Coast Guard 3-1 (23-25, 25-17, 25-21, 25-23) on Saturday. Sabine Smith had 17 kills, .371 hitting and five blocks. Eileen Sadati added 14 kills on .387 hitting, and May had 44 assists.
• The Engineers have won seven straight matches. They are in the NEWMAC final for the sixth straight year and the 21st time overall, and they have won four of the last five titles.
• Sadati leads MIT with 294 kills, and Sabine Smith averages 4.07 kills per set. Julia Tolstova has 231 kills and 240 digs. May averages 10.35 assists per set, and libero Sophia Song averages 4.42 digs per set.
• MIT is hitting .237 and averages 13.4 kills and 14.8 digs per set. Its nonconference wins include a sweep of then-No. 2 Colby.

COMMON GROUND

• Smith is 2-0 against Babson this season and MIT is 0-1.
• Smith is 2-0 against Springfield and MIT is 0-1.
• MIT swept Emerson. Smith lost to the Lions 3-1.
• Smith beat Coast Guard 3-0. MIT is 2-0 against Coast Guard, with both wins in four sets.
• Neither team lost to any of the conference's other six programs.

BEAR BITES

• Smith has won back-to-back five-set matches in the tournament: 3-2 over Springfield in the quarterfinals and 3-2 over Babson in the semifinals.
• The Bears are 2-0 at Staake Gymnasium this season, with wins over Babson on Sept. 26 and Nov. 14.
• Smith's 27 wins are eight more than its 2025 total (19-12).

NUMBERS TO KNOW

• 7 — MIT's combined margin in its three set wins on Nov. 3
• 15-8 — Smith's fifth-set score against Babson
• .139 — Opponents' hitting percentage against Smith
• 2.18 — Smith's blocks per set, compared with MIT's 1.53
• 1,045 — Assists by MIT's Kayleigh May

UP NEXT
The NEWMAC champion earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship, which begins with first-round play Thursday, Nov. 19.

About Smith Athletics
Smith College is a NCAA Division III member of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) that sponsors 11 intercollegiate sports. For more information, log on to GoSmithBears.com and follow the Bears on Facebook and Instagram.