BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins volleyball team battled No. 16 and top-seeded Wesleyan in the Baltimore Regional Final Saturday night, sweeping the Cardinals 3-0 (25-23, 25-11, 25-23) to secure their spot in the Elite 8 for the second straight year. Hopkins now sits at 28-4 on the season, with the loss dropping Wesleyan to 24-2.
Simrin Carlsen led the way once again with a match-high 16 kills to pair with her team-high 15 digs, while
Alice Yu (season-high 12) and
Chidinma Onukwugha (10) also cracked double figures.
Helena Swaak finished with a match-best 42 assists to up her season total to 1,168 and move the sophomore into fifth in program history for assists in a single season, and on the defensive end it was
Pamela Chiakpo racking up a team-best four rejections followed by three apiece from Yu and Onukwugha.
As a team the Jays hit .324 — the highest percentage allowed by the Cardinals all season by over 10% — while holding Wesleyan to just .194, the program's fourth-lowest mark of the year in a wire-to-wire win.
Saturday's first set started as one of runs, with an opening block from Onukwugha and Carlsen igniting a 3-0 run that was immediately followed by a Wesleyan 3-0 burst to reset the match. The Cardinals took their first lead at 5-4, but a 7-0 run that included a trio of enders by
Simone Adam shot Hopkins ahead 11-5. Both sides settled into their systems from there, with Wesleyan getting as close as two on multiple occasions before a 4-1 run made it 21-20 Blue Jays. Hopkins scored three of the next four to go ahead 24-21, but a kill and ace from the Cardinals threatened extra points. There to close things out, however, was Carlsen, whose fourth kill of the set closed it 25-23.
Set 2 was all Hopkins from start to finish in a frame in which the Jays hit a match-best .440 compared to a match-worst .043 for Wesleyan. An Onukwugha kill followed by four straight hitting errors from the Cardinals were the start of a run that saw Hopkins jump out to a 10-1 lead. The Cardinals found the occasional point on errors from the Jays, but with the score 20-8, a pair of kills from both Carlsen and Onukwugha as well as an ace from
Evelyn Batista scored five of the next eight points in Hopkins' favor, closing the set 25-11 and putting the Jays up 2-0 on the night.
Saturday's final set was the closest of the match, with neither side able to create much separation in the opening points. Hopkins threatened to pull away after a 3-0 burst put them up 9-5, but a 4-1 response by the Cardinals brought it right back to a one-score set. With just one point splitting the teams at 14-13, an extended 7-3 run that saw the Jays go ahead 21-16 appeared the put the set out of reach once again, but the Cardinals answered the call again with a 4-0 spurt to make it 21-20. In the most even volleyball of the evening, the two teams traded points until it was 24-23, with a block from Yu and Chiakpo closing out the set and match, and punching Hopkins' ticket to its second consecutive Elite 8.
For their efforts throughout the weekend, the Blue Jays had three players named to the All-Region Team in Swaak, Onukwugha and Carlsen. Swaak totaled an incredible 125 assists (12.5 per set) over her three matches, while Onukwugha averaged 3.2 kills on a .448 hitting percentage to pair with one block per set. Carlsen was named the Region's Most Outstanding Player after averaging 5.1 kills and 3.6 digs per set to pair with eight total aces. All three broke previously held program NCAA records in total assists, hitting percentage and total kills respectively in what was one of the most dominant Regional runs in program history.
With the NCAA Tournament down to its final eight teams, the remaining programs will be re-seeded before continuing their journey to the National Championship game. The Blue Jays will play next on Wednesday, Nov. 29, with their opponent to be decided.
