Nov. 4, 2012

Final Stats

LANCASTER, PA - The Johns Hopkins volleyball team won its second consecutive Centennial Conference title on Sunday with a sweep of host and top-seeded Franklin & Marshall. The Blue Jays improve to 29-3 and will learn their NCAA fate when the bracket for the 2012 NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championships are announced on NCAA.com at 11 am on Monday morning. F&M, which was looking for its second CC title in three years, ends the season at 18-14. JHU's 29 wins this season are a school record and the Blue Jays avenge a 3-1 regular season loss to the Diplomats with the victory.

The Blue Jays took set one, 25-17, on the strength of a 9-1 run that turned a slim 8-7 lead into a 17-8 advantage that the Diplomats couldn't recover from. Katie Schwarz collected a pair of kills and Jasmine Warmington and Meagan Donohoe added kills as well during the spree. JHU hit .314 in the set as the Blue Jays collected 15 kills against just four errors in the opening set. F&M was never closer than eight points down the stretch.

The second set was much closer throughout as the Diplomats fought back from six, four-point deficits early in the set and finally pulled even at 18-18 on a Candice Tussing kill. The Blue Jays responded with a three-point rally to grab a 21-18 led, but F&M pulled to within 22-21 when the Blue Jays had a net violation. The Blue Jays gained some breathing room on a net violation against F&M and a service ace by Amelia Thomas before Ellen Rogers gave JHU the 25-22 set victory with a kill from the middle.

The Diplomats, who never led in the first two sets, jumped out quickly in the third set and led 5-2 early before the Blue Jays responded with a 5-2 run of their own that knotted things at seven. From there, the teams battled nearly evenly as the match was tied three times between 10-10 and 15-15 before a Schwarz kill ignited an 8-1 run that erased a one-point deficit and gave JHU what proved to be an insurmountable 23-17 lead. Schwarz collected three kills during the run, which was capped by a kill from Warmington.

The Diplomats pulled within 24-19 before Warmington capped her 14-kill performance with a blast to the far side that secured the title and Hopkins' second straight trip the NCAA Tournament.

Johns Hopkins got the match-high 14 kills from Warmington and nine kills and 12 digs from Schwarz. The Blue Jays hit a collective .237 in the match and collected eight team blocks to win the battle at the net. Freshman Carolyn Zin had a team-high 19 assists.

Tussing collected 11 of F&M's 30 kills on the day, but the Diplomats hit just .092, had 10 service errors and were never able to get in a flow after the Blue Jays took the early leads in the first two sets.

Johns Hopkins is the first Centennial team to beat a top seed in the conference final on its home floor since Haverford topped Gettysburg in four sets in 2008.

- 30 -