The Basics 
• Score: #6 Johns Hopkins – 3 • Manhattanville – 0 (25-9, 25-9, 25-9)
• Records: #6 Johns Hopkins (30-0) • Manhattanville – (24-6)
• Location: Baltimore, MD • Goldfarb Gym
• The Short Story: The unbeaten and sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins volleyball team opened play in the 2019 NCAA Tournament with a convincing three-set win over Manhattanville.  The Blue Jays took each set by identical 25-9 scores and will face Stockton in the second round of the tournament on Saturday.

How it Happened

SET ONE
• The Blue Jays wasted no time jumping on the Valiants as a lightning-quick 6-0 run forced an early Manhattanville timeout.  Junior Natalie Aston fueled the match-opening run from the service line as she had three aces and Simone Bliss added three kills in what became a 7-0 lead before Manhattanville got on the board.
•  The Valiants scored three of the next four points to pull within 8-3 after back-to-back kills by Alejandra Figueroa and Emma Dronzek, but the Blue Jays responded with 11-1 run to push the lead out to 19-4.  Lauren Anthony did a lot of the damage for Johns Hopkins during the spree as she collected four of her six first-set kills during the run.
•  The teams traded the next eight points before Anthony and Bliss sandwiched kills around an Austen Brauer kill for the Valiants to put the set away.
•  Johns Hopkins hit a blistering .654 in the set with 17 kills on just 26 attempts.  Aston totaled 14 assists and three aces and Bliss added four kills to go along with Anthony's six.

SET TWO
• The Blue Jays jumped to the same 7-1 lead they held in set one in the second set, this time behind three early kills from sophomore Eleni Panagopoulos.  The teams traded the next eight points with Manhattanville pulling within 11-5 on an attack error by the Blue Jays.
•  Johns Hopkins responded to the mini-run by the Valiants with a 12-3 spurt to take control of the set.  Eight kills and two service aces fueled the spree with consecutive kills from Bliss and Aston igniting the run, which was capped by back-to-back kills from Anthony and senior Louisa Kishton.  A Kishton kill ended the set for the Blue Jays.
•  The Blue Jays hit .407 in the set with 13 kills against just two hitting errors on 27 attempts.  Johns Hopkins also collected five aces in the set and held the Valiants to a -.071 attack percentage. 

SET THREE
• Any hopes for a Manhattanville comeback were dashed early in set three as the Blue Jays sprinted out to a 9-2 lead and never let the Valiants get closer than five the rest of the set.
•  Leading 4-2, the Blue Jays used a 5-0 run to jump to the 9-2 lead.  Kills from Kishton and Anthony and three consecutive attacking errors by the Valiants accounted for the five points in the run.
•   The Valiants battled the Blue Jays evenly in the middle of the set and were within 15-9 after a Blue Jay service error, setting error and attacking error, but Bliss sandwiched kills around back-to-back kills from senior Hannah Korslund to ignite what became a 9-0 set and match-ending run for the Blue Jays.  Bliss had four kills in the nine-point run, but ended with back-to-back attacking errors by the Valiants.

Inside the Box Score
• Johns Hopkins, which entered the NCAA Tournament as the nation's top hitting team at .311 for the season, did nothing to hurt that average as the Blue Jays hit .487 on the night with 42 kills and just five errors on 76 attempts.
•  Bliss and Anthony both registered 10 kills and Kishton added nine and Panagopoulos seven in the victory.
• Aston rang up 35 assists, five service aces and four block assists.  Johns Hopkins collected eight total blocks in the victory with Anthony collecting one solo and five assisted blocks on the night.
•  Brauer collected six of Manhattanville's 14 kills on the night, but the Valiants hit -.108 with 22 attack errors on 74 attempts.  Vianca Vital added 11 assists and 10 digs on the night in a loss that snapped a 12-match winning Manhattanville winning streak.

What it Means
• Johns Hopkins improves to 30-0 on the year.  The last remaining unbeaten Division III volleyball team in the nation, the Blue Jays broke the school single-season record for wins with the victory tonight.
• Johns Hopkins advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year.
•  The Blue Jays' 30-match winning streak is 18^th-longest in Division III history.

Up Next
• Johns Hopkins will host Stockton in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Goldfarb Gymnasium on Saturday, November 16 at 6:30 pm.  The other second-round match at Hopkins on Saturday features Stevens taking on Susquehanna.

Be sure to follow the Blue Jays all season long on Twitter (@JHUVB) and on Instagram (@johnshopkinsvolleyball).