BALTIMORE, MD – Tournament MVP Megha Salvi helped Johns Hopkins get on the board early and then provided the heroics late as the ninth-ranked Blue Jay women's soccer team topped visiting Franklin & Marshall, 2-1, in the 2023 Centennial Conference Women's Soccer Championship Game Sunday afternoon at Homewood Field.  The Blue Jays improve to 15-2-2 overall and secure the Centennial's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament with today's victory.
 
The tournament title is the 14^th for Johns Hopkins, which counts 16 overall Centennial titles to its credit; JHU's first two league championships in 1997 and 1998 were won when the league champion was determined by the regular season standings.
 
Seemingly heading to overtime as the clock dripped under the two-minute mark, the Blue Jays came up with a loose ball near their bench and sophomore Maria Romo-Nichols pushed forward and towards the middle of the field.  She found graduate student Charlotte Tapp posted up near the top of the box and Tapp one-touched Romo-Nichols' feed to a streaking Salvi, whose 12-yard rip found the corner of the goal past the outstretched arms of F&M goalie Lucile Fleming for what proved to be the game winner.

TICKET PUNCHED!

Tournament MVP Megha Salvi with the GWG in the @CentennialConf title game. Jays win 2-1! #GoHop pic.twitter.com/ULUqCrh4jy

— Johns Hopkins Women's Soccer (@HopkinsWSoccer) November 5, 2023

 
A back-and-forth second half saw the teams combine for 15 shots and six corner kicks.  Prior to Salvi's strike, the Blue Jays' best chance after the break came in the 55^th minute when Romo-Nichols got a step on her defender as she worked the top of the box and sent a shot just wide of the far post.
 
The Diplomats seemingly were more dangerous than their seven total shots in the game would indicate, but only four of their seven were on goal and Blue Jay 'keeper Eva Breiland came up with three saves – all in the second half – to keep them to just the one goal.
 
The Blue Jays had opened the scoring in the eighth minute as Salvi was able to get her left foot free along the end line and lofted a cross into the middle of the box that sophomore Lily Gaston was able to volley into the top of the net from eight yards out to give the Blue Jays the early lead.
 
F&M nearly tied it just over a minute later on a Sophie Koziol offering from straight on at 20 yards that whistled just wide of the post.  Fifteen minutes later, the Diplomats struck on a great individual effort by Lillian Williams, who took on a defender on the edge of the box to the right of Breiland and fired one off the far post and in to level things up at 1-1.  Just under 67 minutes later, Salvi broke the tie to give the Blue Jays the title.
 
Johns Hopkins held a 19-76 advantage in shots and took nine of the 13 corners in the game.  Fleming posted five saves in goal for the Diplomats while Breiland had the three for the Blue Jays
 
The bracket for the 2023 NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Tournament will be announced on Monday, November 6.  The selection show can be viewed at 1:30 pm on ncaa.com.