Volleyball Makes it Back-to-Back MASCAC Titles, Advances to NCAAs

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- Top-seeded Bridgewater State University captured the 2025 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Volleyball Tournament championship with a 3-1 (25-7, 26-28, 25-15, 25-15) victory over #3 seed Framingham State University on Saturday afternoon in the tournament title match at the Tinsley Center.

The Bears (17-4) earned their second straight MASCAC Tournament crown and 12th in program history. With the championship victory, Bridgewater advances to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the second consecutive year and 12th time overall.

The 2025 NCAA Divisoon III Volleyball Selection Show will air Monday, November 17th at 1:00 PM ET on NCAA.com. A link to the show will be on the front page of NCAA.com.

Framingham finishes the season with a record of 18-13.

Tournament MVP Lily Welch (Hanson, Mass.) paced the hosts with a career-high 19 kills to go along with an ace, 15 digs and four blocks (one solo). Welch posted a .390 hitting percentage.

Senior Kim Gowell (Durham, N.H.) checked in with 15 kills, a .560 hitting percentage and two assisted blocks for the Bears while junior Ava Crane (Dartmouth, Mass.) tallied ten kills, four aces and a match-high 23 digs, and sophomore Charlotte Sullivan (Hyannis, Mass.) contributed four kills, eight digs and five assisted blocks.

Sophomore Natalie Fredriksen (Plymouth, Mass.) and junior Xin Ai Robinson (Kaiserslautern, Germany) combined for 45 assists with Fredriksen recording a career-best 24 helpers as well as a match-high five aces. Robinson also notched an ace and ten digs.

Junior Natalie Reynolds (Beverly, Mass.) led the Framingham attack with 11 kills while senior Stella Bailey (Wrentham, Mass.) dished out 24 assists to go along with a pair of aces. Freshman Kristina Santiago-Alers (Carolina, P.R.) added 20 digs for the Rams.

The Bears came out strong as they rolled to a 25-7 win in the opening set. Bridgewater notched eight aces in the set led by Fredriksen with three and Crane with a pair. Welch and Gowell tallied four kills apiece in the frame.

The second set featured 11 ties with neither team leading by more than four points. The Rams trailed 24-21 before rallying for the hard-fought 28-26 win to even the match at 1-1. Framingham scored the final three points of the set on back-to-back kills by sophomore Madysen Cedrone (North Andover, Mass.) and Bailey followed by ba BSU attacking error.

Bridgewater bounced back in the third set. Clinging to an 11-10 lead following a Reynolds' ace, the Bears outscored the Rams 14-4 the rest of the way to take the set and a 2-1 lead in the match. The hosts closed out the set with a pair of kills from Gowell sandwich around a Welch kill. Five different BSU hitters recorded kills in the set led by Gowell with four and Welch with three.

The Bears trailed 10-9 in the fourth set after a Reynolds kill. Bridgewater, however, reeled off six straight points as part of a 14-2 run to pull away. Welch highlight the run with five kills while the Rams committed four attacking errors during the spurt. Leading 24-15, the Bears closed out the set and the match with a Crane kill.

Bridgewater recorded a .253 team hitting percentage on the afternoon with eight blocks, 14 aces and seven serving errors. The BSU defense limited Framing to a .063 hitting percentage. The Rams finished with six aces and six serving errors and just one block.