BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins volleyball team hosted Salisbury on Day 1 of the Hopkins Invitational Friday night, using a complete team effort to clinch the 3-1 (25-16, 25-14, 17-25, 25-12) win over the Sea Gulls in front of the home crowd.
Simrin Carlsen led the Blue Jays with 15 kills, while
Simone Adam (9),
Alice Yu (8) and
Chidinma Onukwugha (8) combined for 26, marking the fourth time this season Hopkins has had four different players rack up at least eight kills. Yu hit a blistering .615 on the night as her eight kills came on just 13 attacks with no errors,
Helena Swaak collected 40 assists and 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season and
Roxy Karrer tied her for the team-lead with 10 digs on the night. Kiley McTaggert collected nearly a third of the Sea Gulls' 32 kills on the night as she had a team-high 10 and hit .419 for the match.
The Blue Jays took the first set 25-16 as they hit .367 with 14 kills against just three hitting errors. Hopkins took control early as the Jays used a five-point run to turn a 2-2 tie into a 7-2 lead that they would never relinquish. Senior
Pamela Chiakpo collected all three of her kills in the set during the 5-0 run. The Blue Jays never let the Sea Gulls get closer than three the rest of the set and led 19-16 before closing the set on a 6-0 run; sophomore Swaak served out the final five of those points with a pair of aces and two Adam kills fueling the spree.
Johns Hopkins used strong hitting again in the second set to power to a 25-14 set win. After jumping out to an 8-3 lead, the Blue Jays maintained a steady lead before the Sea Gulls pulled within 15-11 after a Blue Jay service error. But a Carlsen kill ignited a 6-1 run that turned the four-point lead into a 21-11 advantage and the 'Gulls were never closer than nine before falling 25-14. Carlsen was perfect on five attack attempts as the Blue Jays hit .500 (13-1-24) in the set.
The Sea Gulls controlled the third set from the opening whistle as they sprinted out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back in taking the set 25-17. The Blue Jays made one run as they pulled even at 9-9, but SU scored the next three points and gradually pulled away. After hitting -.037 and .000 in the first two sets, the 'Gulls found their hitting game in set three as they collected 11 kills and hit. 240 while holding Hopkins to -.094. Salisbury collected six blocks in set three and Mctaggert collected three kills to lead SU offensively.
The Jays retook control in Friday's fourth and final set, hitting .324 while holding the Gulls to .000 for the second time on the evening. Hopkins took advantage of some strong serving from Karrer, who extended her streak of matches with an ace to ten, to jump out to a 9-2 advantage early on. The lead stayed between five and seven points until it was 13-7 and the Blue Jays went on a set and match-closing 8-1 run to go ahead 21-8. From there the set was never closer than 11 points, with Adam's ninth kill of the game securing the win for Hopkins.
The Blue Jays will continue action in the Johns Hopkins Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 23 with matches against Mount Union (12:30 pm) and Scranton (5:30 pm).
