Babson Park, Mass. – In a tri-match that featured a three of the region's top ten teams, Clark University got the split it needed, topping New England Women's And Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) rival Babson, 3-1 before dropping their first match of the season to Amherst College, 3-0, on Saturday afternoon.

The Cougars now stand at 12-1 overall but more importantly, they moved to 4-0 in league play in advance of Tuesday's showdown with a 13-1 MIT squad who the Scarlet and White have never beaten.

In the opening match of the day, the Cougars got off to a shaky start and the host Beavers took full advantage on their way to a 25-17. A lot of the Clark miscues were self-inflicted as they had 13 attack errors in the frame.

Once they calmed their nerves, the Scarlet and White went on to win the final three sets. It began in the second with their 25-23 win. Things didn't look as if they were going to go Clark's way after the Beavers went ahead 23-21 following an Alicia Wilde (Franklin, Mass.) kill.

The Cougars stormed back, however, scoring the final four points of the set – three of which came on Babson attack errors and a Courtney Pharr (Seattle, Wash.) service ace.

Clark jumped out to a 15-10 advantage in the third set but the Beavers chased them down eventually taking a 21-19 lead. As they did in the second set, the Scarlet and White battled back and knotted the game at 23-23 on another Pharr service ace and then took a 2-1 lead when the Beavers committed a pair of attack errors.

The third set belonged to the Cougars as they built a five point lead on several occasions, including at 15-10 and 17-12 but once again the score was even at 23-23 down the stretch. Kills by both Ramos and Mercado sealed the set in favor of the visitors, 25-23.

Ahead 16-13 in the fourth, Clark looked to be in cruise control but the Beavers went on a 7-0 run, highlighted by a trio of kills from Wilde to put the Green and White ahead, 20-16.

Clark responded with a match-sealing 9-1 burst to take the set that featured kills from Pharr, Ramos and Shannon Glass-Smythe (Albuquerque, N.M.) and another match-ending ace from Pharr.

Babson was excellent defensively the net, recording 11 total blocks with eight coming from Alana Atchison (Pembroke, Mass.).

Wilde and Mary Donahue (Braintree, Mass.) finished with a team-high 14 kills for the Beavers, while Elizabeth Sullivan ended with 19 digs. Jenny Karnes (Houston, Texas) had a fantastic match as well, recording 13 kills on .478 hitting.

Ramos had a monster effort for Clark, totaling 23 kills and 23 digs while Glass-Smythe collected 12 kills, five digs and four service aces.

Webb notched a double-double of her own with ten digs and a career-best 48 assists and Mia Cattaneo (Santa Barbara, Calif.) posted 17 digs.

In the nightcap, a weary Cougar squad fresh off of their thrilling conference win over the Beavers, fell to Amherst, 3-0. The Lord Jeffs hit .343 and got 13 kills from Maggie Danner en route to the easy win.

Katie Warshaw collected 19 digs and Nicole Carter handed out 23 assists.

Mercado led the Clark offense with nine kills, while Cattaneo had nine digs and Webb finished with 18 assists and six digs.