Nov. 4, 2011

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - For the first time since 2004, the Johns Hopkins volleyball team will play in the championship game in the Centennial Conference tournament for a chance at its automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Top-seeded Blue Jays defeated Haverford in straight sets, 3-0, with set scores of 25-20, 25-20, 25-20 and will face Gettysburg in the championship match tomorrow evening at Goldfarb Gym.

The Blue Jays move to 24-4 on the season while the Fords end their season at 14-14. Hopkins has now won 14 straight matches and 18 straight home matches, dating back to last season.

Hopkins fell behind Haverford early in the first set but found a grove and battled back to tie the game at 10 a piece before taking a 12-10 lead behind the serving of freshman Katie Schwarz. Haverford continued to fight back and retied the set at 12 before pulling ahead of the Blue Jays to take a 14-12 lead. After an attack error by the Fords, freshman Ellen Rogers served three-straight points to give control of the opening set to the Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays extended their lead over the Fords with three-straight kills from Schwarz to give the Blue Jays a seven-point lead, 23-16, their highest of the match. Haverford would answer, however with four-straight points behind Caitlyn Tranquillo serving, to pull within three at 23-20. After a kill from freshman Megan Schwarz, the Blue Jays would have their first set point of the match and Katie Schwarz ended the set with a kill off an assist from senior Melissa Cole.

Once again the Blue Jays found themselves in a hole to open the second set with the Fords taking a 3-1 lead early on. The two teams would trade points until Cole served four straight points to give Hopkins a 9-5 lead. The Blue Jays and Fords traded side outs, and Haverford found a grove of its own and scored seven-straight points to take a 13-11 lead and force Hopkins to call a time out. After a brief intermission to catch their breath, the Blue Jays came back and scored four-straight to take a 15-13 lead behind two kills from freshman Meagan Donohoe.

Leading 20-16 in the second set, junior Becky Paynter went on a four-point run to give the Blue Jays their second set-point of the match at 24-17. Closing out this set would not be as easy as the first set, however, as the Fords used four-straight points to pull within four, 24-20. Megan Schwarz took a set from Paynter to close out the set for the Blue Jays, 25-20.

The Blue Jays are nothing if not consistent and once again found themselves in a tight battle to open the third set of the match with the score tied at 10-10. The Fords scored three-straight and took a 12-10 lead before trading seven back-to-back points, coming out on top 15-14. Haverford scored two more points before the Blue Jays battled them once again to trade seven points between them. With Paynter at the service line and the Blue Jays down 19-20, the junior's consistency shone through as she served the final six points of the match, including two aces to force the Fords to use two time outs before Cole used a perfect set from Paynter to collect her team-leading 12th kill of the match and hand the Blue Jays a 25-20 win.

Cole led the Blue Jays with 12 kills and collected nine digs. The senior needs just nine more digs to break into the JHU career top-ten list in digs at 990. Katie Schwarz had 11 kills over the three sets and a team-leading 18 digs. Freshman Mariel Metalios handed out 18 assists with Paynter right behind with 17. The Blue Jays hit .286 as a team while holding the Fords to just a .186 team hitting percentage.

The Blue Jays will play in the conference championship match for the first time since 2004 when they faced Gettysburg. Once again, Hopkins squares off against the Bullets, but this time in their home gym where the Blue Jays have won 18-staight matches. The Centennial Conference Championship match is set for 7 pm tomorrow, November 5.

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