BALTIMORE, MD – With a spot in Sunday's Centennial Conference Championship on the line, the Johns Hopkins volleyball team put together another complete team effort to sweep Swarthmore in Goldfarb Gym Friday night, sending the Garnet home and advancing to the program's seventh straight and 13^th-ever title match.
 
Pamela Chiakpo — the 2022 Centennial Conference Tournament MVP — led the Blue Jays in kills for the second time in three games with 13, while Simrin Carlsen (11), Chidinma Onukwugha (9) and Alice Yu (8) also made significant contributions. Helena Swaak registered a match-high 40 assists — her third time eclipsing 40 helpers in a three-set match this season — while Grace Reininga (16), Roxy Karrer (13), Carlsen (12) and Swaak (10) each reached double figures in digs. Alice Yu paced Hopkins in blocks with five total,with Chiakpo and Onukwugha adding four and three apiece.
 
Hopkins (24-4, 9-1 Centennial) started out Friday's match on the front foot in a set in which they never trailed. Onukwugha got things started with her first kill to spark a 4-1 run to open Set 1. Swarthmore (16-10, 8-2 Centennial) responded to cut the lead to one at 6-5, but another 5-0 burst started by Chiakpo pushed the Jays' advantage back to six. The Garnet did not go away, making it a one-point set on two more occasions before eventually tying the set at 17, 18 and 19, but it was Hopkins capitalizing on an attack error to pull away with a critical 3-0 run. The sides trade the next trio of points before a kill from Simone Adam ended it 25-21.
 
There was hardly anything to separate the sides in Set 2, with each team remaining within two points of the lead until the score was 13-11 in favor of Swarthmore. From there Hopkins went on an inspired 11-2 run to go up 22-15, with the Garnet's only points coming via Jays service errors. Chiakpo was pivotal in the set-clinching stint, tallying three kills and two blocks during the run. The Garnet once again tried to chip away at the lead, getting as close as five before a service error closed out the set 25-19 and put Hopkins ahead 2-0.
 
Friday's final set saw Swarthmore score the opening point for the first time that night, going ahead 2-0 early. That lead was short-lived, however, with a 3-0 run followed by a pair of service errors from both teams putting the Jays in front 4-3.
 
Like the second set, consecutive points were hard to come by, with Swarthmore taking a slight 12-10 laed before an Onukwugha kill sparked a 4-0 run to give Hopkins its largest lead of the set. The Garnet tied the game at 15-15, but a set and match-clinching 6-1 run all but put the game out of reach. Swarthmore took two points to make it 21-18, but kills from Chiakpo and Carlsen as well as a pair of aces courtesy of Evelyn Batista closed out the set, securing the sweep and a spot in the Conference Championship.
 
The Jays will take on Gettysburg for the title Sunday, Nov. 12, with opening serve set for 1 p.m.
 
Notes: Swaak's mark of 40 assists pushed the sophomore's total to over the 1000 on the year, making her just the sixth player in program history to surpass that number and moving her into ninth in program history for assists in a single season • Carlsen now sits just nine kills away from reaching 400 on the year. She would become the eighth player in program history to surpass 400 in one season and move into 10^th all-time for kills in a single-season • This was the third straight game that Batista has totaled three aces, moving her into sole possession of 17^th among Hopkins' all-time aces leaders.