CLAREMONT, CA – The Johns Hopkins volleyball program's historic season came to an end in its Elite 8 match against #2 Hope Wednesday night, where despite climbing back after being down 2-0, the Blue Jays ultimately fell to the Flying Dutch 3-2 (18-25, 25-27, 28-26, 25-14, 12-15).
 
Chidinma Onukwugha and Simone Adam paced Hopkins in kills at 18 apiece in the narrow defeat, with Simrin Carlsen (17) finishing close behind. Onukwugha's 18 kills were a career-high and tie the junior for the fifth-most in an NCAA match in program history.
 
Helena Swaak wrapped up her sophomore campaign with a career-best 63 assists to pair with three service aces, while defensively it was Evelyn Batista and Alice Yu leading the way in digs and blocks with 16 and four respectively.
 
There was hardly anything to separate the teams in the closest quarterfinal match of the day, with Hopkins holding a narrow advantage in kills (68-67), blocks (8-6) and assists (66-64), while Hope hit .278 compared to .262 for the Jays and held a slight 66-59 advantage in digs.
 
Contrary to the final stat lines, the first set was controlled by Hope, who hit a match-high .667 in the frame while Hopkins hit a team-low .156. After the Flying Dutch scored the evening's opening point, it was actually the Blue Jays going on a 7-1 run to take an early lead. Following a timeout, however, Hope began to cut into the advantage, leveling things at 13 before taking the lead for good. A kill from Pamela Chiakpo made it a three-point set at 21-18, but it was the Flying Dutch rattling off the next four points — three of which came via error — to take Set 1 25-18.
 
Set 2 was the first of two to go to extra points as both sides began to settle into their systems.The Blue Jays once again saw themselves get ahead early, with a 5-1 run that featured a trio of Hope errors putting Hopkins up 9-5. Another Chiakpo kill kept the four-point lead at 11-7 before the Flying Dutch rode the hot hand of Addie VanderWeide to a 6-0 run to jump in front 13-11.
 
A 3-0 burst after things were leveled at 16 put Hope back ahead 19-16, but this time it was the Jays capitalizing on kills from Carlsen, Yu and Adam to spark a 5-0 response and take a critical 21-19 lead. Hopkins had a chance to close it out up 24-23, but VanderWeide tied things once again at 24 before her 12^th kill of the set gave the Flying Dutch the 27-25 win to put them ahead 2-0 in the match.
 
Wednesday's third set was just as close as Set 2, with Hopkins stealing momentum with a 29-27 win to keep the match alive. Unlike the previous two sets, it was Hope establishing themselves early with an 11-5 lead. The gap remained six with the score 15-9 before the Jays began their comeback. A pair of 3-1 runs made it a two-point set at 19-17 before the sides traded points all the way until the score read 24-21. With their backs against the wall, Hopkins forced four straight Flying Dutch errors to level the game and take the lead 25-24. Hope responded with two straight points to give themselves another chance at the sweep, but a trio of kills by Adam and Onukwugha — her seventh of the stanza — denied the Flying Dutch and sent the match to a fourth set.
 
Following a momentum-shifting third set, Set 4 was all Hopkins with the Blue Jays improving their hitting percentage for the fourth straight frame while Hope's was down to a match-low .103. There was little to separate the sides at first with the score knotted at six, but a service error ignited a set-deciding 9-1 run to shoot Hopkins ahead 15-7.
 
After the Flying Dutch momentarily stopped the bleeding, another 7-1 run made it 23-10 Jays, with a pair of kills from Adam closing out the set in convincing fashion, 25-14, to force a fifth set for just the third time all season.
 
Hop fed VanderWeide early to take a 3-0 lead in the decisive fifth set, but Hopkins had a response in Onukwugha, who rattled off three straight kills to set a new career-high and knot things at five. Later in the set it was Adam's turn to go on her own 3-0 run, this time putting the Jays in front 11-9. The lead did not last, however, as five straight kills by the Flying Dutch gave them three chances to close out the match. A kill from Chiakpo made it 14-12, but a final kill from Alison DeWeerd denied Hopkins of a historic comeback, clinching the 3-2 victory for Hope.
 
Despite the loss, this Hopkins group solidified themselves as one of the most complete in program history, with Carlsen, Swaak and Onukwugha placing among the best to don a Blue Jay uniform in their respective areas. Carlsen finishes the 2023 campaign with 464 kills and a 4.46 kill-per-set average, which rank behind only Mary Alexis Paul for third and second in a single season all-time. Swaak's totals of 1231 assists and 10.99 per set rank third and fourth in a single season in program history respectively behind only Amanda Lewis, while Onukwugha's final hitting percentage of .371 is the fifth-best mark in a single season in program history.
 
Hopkins concludes its 2023 campaign with a record of 28-5 after reaching the Elite 8 for the third time in four seasons.