The Basics 
• Score: #2 Johns Hopkins – 3 •Birmingham Southern – 0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-22)
• Records: #2 Johns Hopkins (4-0) • Birmingham Southern (4-3)
• Location: Baltimore, MD • Goldfarb Gymnasium
• The Short Story: The second-ranked Blue Jays kept the momentum going after an 3-0 weekend in Ithaca a week ago, returning to Goldfarb Gymnasium Friday night to sweep Birmingham Southern in straight sets.

How it Happened

SET ONE
• On a night that would see some newcomers shine for Hopkins, it was the veterans who got things going from the jump. Senior setter, Natalie Aston, who turned in a season-high six kills on the night, picked up a pair of kills early to help the Blue Jays open up an early 6-1 advantage. Fellow senior, Lauren Anthony aided with a pair of aces from the service line. Hopkins would score seven points off Anthony serves in the opening frame.
• Hopkins would maintain that five point lead for nearly the entirety of the first set, before the Panthers ultimately cut the lead to 22-18 following a block from Leah Nielsen and Gigi Fields. Anthony answered to push the Hopkins lead back to 23-18, and a pair of BSC errors resulted in a 25-19 first set victory for the Jays.
• Simone Bliss once again paced the way with six of her match-high 15 kills in the opener to help Hopkins to an impressive .395 first set hitting percentage.

SET TWO
• Senior UMBC-transfer, Elayna Williams, got into the action early in the second set, picking up consecutive points from the left side to give Hopkins the early 6-4 lead. Her third kill of the set would push the lead to 9-5.
• Consecutive points from Aston and Bliss extended the lead to 13-8, and Hopkins would string together five straight points behind the strong serve of Aston to blow open the second frame.

SET THREE
• Another Aston kill capped a 5-0 Hopkins run that took what was an 8-7 Panther lead, to a 12-8 advantage for the Jays. But the Panthers settled themselves out of the timeout, reeling off three straight points to shrink the lead back to one.
• Back-to-back attacking errors from Sydney Portale evened the score at 16-16. Freshman Simrin Carlsen steadied the ship with a kill to give the advantage back to Hopkins, and consecutive attacking errors from the Panthers gave the Blue Jays some breathing room.
• But this time, Birmingham Southern would not go down without a fight. The Panthers clawed their way back and after a pair of uncharacteristic attacking errors from Bliss, all of a sudden the match was tied once again at 21-21.
• Hopkins once again had an answer, this time from a different freshman. Chidinma Onukwugha, who was seeing her first game action of her young career, slammed home a feed from Aston for her third kill of the set to send the Goldfarb crowd into a frenzy and give JHU a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

What it Means
• The historic Hopkins' winning streak stretched to 39 with Friday night's win. The 39-match winning streak moves the Blue Jays into a tie for the sixth longest winning streak in Division III history along with Calvin (Nov. 11, 2010 – Nov. 11, 2011) and SUNY Cortland (Aug. 30 – Nov. 1, 2003).
• Friday's win was the 248^th in Matt Troy's career. The Blue Jays' head coach will have a shot at an illustrious 250^th career win tomorrow if the Jays can take care of business in their two Saturday matches.

Inside the Box Score
• The Blue Jays once again eclipsed the .300 mark as a team, swinging at a .311 clip. It's the third time this season that Hopkins has hit above .300 as a team.
• Three JHU freshman made their career debuts Friday night, as Emma Dionne and Brooklyn Pater joined Onukwugha in making their first appearance in the blue and white.  
• A week after being named the AVCA National Player of the Week, Bliss finished the night with 15 kills. The graduate outside has now eclipsed double-digit kills in 12 straight matches dating back to 2019. As a sophomore, she scored double-digit kills in 22 consecutive matches.

Up Next
•  Hopkins is right back inside of Goldfarb Gymnasium tomorrow for day two of the Greg "Gio" Giovanazzi Memorial Tournament. The Jays will take on Virginia Wesleyan at noon before battling with Muskingum at 4 p.m. Be sure to tune in early for the 12 p.m. match as we will be honoring the 2019 National Championship team with a ring ceremony pregame.

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