MATCH 1
The Basics 
• Score: #6 Johns Hopkins – 3 • #12 Juniata – 1 (25-21, 21-15, 25-16, 25-15)
• Records: #6 Johns Hopkins (2-0) • #12 Juniata (1-1)
• Location: Ithaca, N.Y. • Hill Center
• The Short Story: In a matchup between a pair of top-15 clubs, Hopkins picked up its second consecutive win over #12 Juniata, knocking off the Eagles in four sets behind 19 kills from Simone Bills and ten kills from freshman Simrin Carlsen.

How it Happened

SET ONE
• From the jump, it was evident that Saturday's meeting between Juniata and Hopkins would again be a competitive match. Simone Bliss scored five of the Blue Jays' first eight points, but on the other side, Juniata's Aly Reardon matched that effort with five of her own leading to an 11-9 Eagle advantage early.
• But, as has been commonplace since head coach Matt Troy took over in 2019, the Blue Jays made one of their staple runs, scoring seven of the next eight points to open up a 16-12 lead, forcing a Juniata timeout. Senior Sarah Khan sparked the Blue Jay run with a pair of aces at the service line.
• Juniata scratched its way back to shrink the Blue Jay lead to 21-19, which forced Troy to use a timeout of his own. A service error by Kennedy Christy followed by a Sydney Portale kill pushed the Hopkins lead back to 23-19. Elayna Williams' second point of the opening frame gave Hopkins set point, and the Eagles' third service error of the morning gave the Jays the first set, 25-21. 
 
SET TWO
• Again, it was Juniata jumping out to an early lead in the second game, and just like the first set, the Eagles held an 11-9 lead. 
• This time, a few uncharacteristic attacking errors from Portale and Lauren Anthony, followed by Reardon's tenth kill of the match helped push the Juniata lead to 14-9.
• Freshman Simrin Carlsen stopped the bleeding and then some, picking up three consecutive kills (her first three of the match), and coupled with a Natalie Aston block on a Reardon swing, the Jays had erased the deficit in a blink of the eye.
• The two sides exchanged points back-and-forth, and after calling a timeout trailing 21-20, the Eagles strung together five consecutive points to take set two, 25-21. It was the first regular season dropped set for Hopkins since October 17, 2019, a stretch of 20-straight sets.
 
SET THREE
• Hopkins settled down in the third, jumping out to an early advantage that they would hold throughout the entirety of the set.
• After Juniata was able to hold the Blue Jay attack to a mediocre .162 hitting percentage in set two, the Blue Jays returned to their usual form, upping their third set hitting percentage to .387. Defensively, the Blue Jays held Juniata to just a .158 hitting percentage in the third, down from .287 in the second.
• Carlsen continued her stellar performance, picking four more of her ten kills to pace the Jays in the third.

SET FOUR
• Aston set the tone with an ace to open the fourth set which kickstarted a quick 3-0 run for Hopkins. Aston and Anthony joined together for a block to put Hopkins up 9-4, and from that point on, the Blue Jay lead never dropped below five points.
• Bliss totaled four of her match-high 19 kills in the fourth, and the Blue Jays held Juniata to just a .024 hitting percentage to close out the match, 25-15

What it Means
• After dropping the first four meetings to the perennial Division III power, Hopkins has now won three of the last four meetings between the Jays and Eagles.
• Hopkins has now won the last eight meetings they have had against ranked opponents, and extends its overall winning streak to 37. That win streak was pushed to 38 following the straight set win over Ithaca.

MATCH 2
• Score: #6 Johns Hopkins – 3 • Ithaca– 0 (25-29, 25-13, 25-16)
• Records: #6 Johns Hopkins (2-0) • Ithaca (1-3)
• Location: Ithaca, N.Y. • Hill Center
• The Short Story: Hopkins closed out an impressive opening weekend at the Bomber Invitational with a clean sweep of the hosts, besting Ithaca in straight sets to go 3-0 on the weekend.

How it Happened

SET ONE
• Simrin Carlsen picked up where she left off earlier in the day with a trio of kills to give Hopkins the early 5-3 advantage. After consecutive errors from the Ithaca attack, Portale tacked on a point of her own to extend the Blue Jay lead to 7-3.
• As would be the case throughout the rest of the afternoon, the Bombers fought their way back from a four point deficit to tie the game at 9-9, before the Jays responded with six consecutive points to push the lead back out to 15-9. Eleni Panagopoulos, Lauren Anthony and Simone Bliss all score points during the run.
• Ithaca would shrink the deficit to 18-16, but would get no closer as Hopkins was able to score on the next four points with freshman Roxy Karrer at the service line.

SET TWO
• Hopkins found themselves down 7-2 out of the gates in the second set. It was Carlsen again stepping up in a big way, picking up back-to-back aces to get Hopkins right back into the frame. 
• From there, neither team was able to make up any ground with service possession. Neither side was able to score on more than three consecutive points until the Blue Jays ultimately found themselves down 22-20.
• Anthony score a kill to condense the deficit to 22-21, and Carlsen added one of her 11 kills to tie it at 22-22. After a Jennifer Pitts kill gave the advantage back to Ithaca, Carlsen was there once again with a kill and then stepped to service line where the Jays were able to gain a 2-0 cushion thanks to a pair of Ithaca errors.

SET THREE
• Just when it looked like Hopkins would have to go to a fourth set for the second time on Saturday, the Jays stood strong and battled off a pair of Ithaca set points to hold their ground.
• Down 24-23, Hopkins turned to their stars as Natalie Aston set up Bliss beautifully on the left side and she fired a cross-court winner to fight off the first set point. Consecutive errors from the Bombers turned set point back on to the side of Hopkins, and fittingly, it was Carlsen who went off the block to close out the match for Hopkins.
 
UP NEXT
• Hopkins will return home to kick-off a seven-game homestand when they host the Greg "Gio" Giovanazzi Memorial Tournament on Friday. Hopkins will play Birmingham Souther on Friday before hosting Virginia Wesleyan and Muskingum on Saturday.