SALEM, VA – The 2024 Johns Hopkins volleyball team hadn't been in this spot before.  And yet, for all but a handful of players, they actually had.  Just not this year.
 
After falling in the NCAA Quarterfinals in excruciating fashion in 2022 and 2023, the third-ranked Blue Jays, with many of the same players on the court from 2022 and 2023, channeled those experiences to outlast seventh-ranked Wisconsin-Oshkosh in a five-set thriller (25-21, 23-25, 25-21, 25-19, 15-11).  The match started and ended the same way – with a Titan service error.  Between those two points, the teams played a classic that included a remarkable 46 ties and 13 lead changes before the Blue Jays finally prevailed.
 
After splitting the first four sets, the teams went to the fifth and deciding set with Oshkosh carrying the momentum of grabbing a 25-19 set-four victory.  The Titans had the Blue Jays on their heels early in the fifth as they jumped to a 3-1 lead, only to have the Blue Jays use an 8-2 spurt to quickly turn the two-point deficit into an 8-5 lead at the changeover.  A pair of Ivy Swafford kills were among the six the Blue Jays collected during the run and an Alice Yu block and Simrin Carlsen kill capped the spree.
 
The Titans (29-6) worked their way back to within 10-9 after a Sami Perlberg kill that forced the Blue Jays into a timeout, but a Carlsen block and a Simone Adam kill gave the Jays a 12-9 lead before another Perlberg kill made it 12-10.  From there, the Blue Jays got a Widener kill and Yu service ace to get to the brink and punched their ticket to Thursday's national semifinals a short time later when the match ended the same way it had begun, with the Titans misfiring from the service line.
 
The Blue Jays (33-2) found themselves in a big hole early in set one as the Titans turned an early 2-1 deficit into a 7-2 lead with a six-point run that included three kills and a service ace.  Johns Hopkins responded with an 8-3 spurt that pulled the Blue Jays even at 10-10.  Kills from five different players fueled the run for the Blue Jays, with Carlsen and Adam bookending the spree with cross-court kills.
 
The Blue Jays had a 13-12 lead after a Titan kill, but an Adam kill sparked a 6-2 Johns Hopkins run that gave the Jays a 19-14 lead.  Again it was five different players getting involved at the net with kills and a Brooklyn Pater dunk in the middle finished things off.  The Titans crept back within two at 19-17 and 20-18, but a service error and back-to-back kills from Adam and Swafford created some late separation and Yu ended things with a kill on the edge.  The Blue Jays hit .405 in the held the Titans below .200 (.195) to grab the all-important first set.
 
A tightly-contested second set saw the Titans rally late to grab a 25-23 victory to even the match.  Neither team led by more than three and there were 18 ties before Wisconsin-Oshkosh used back-to-back Joslyn Wolf kills to turn a 23-22 deficit into a 24-23 lead and the Titans polished it off on a Blue Jay hitting error.  Both teams collected 17 kills in the set and the Blue Jays outhit the Titans (.308-.245), but three Titan service aces came at key points and helped Oshkosh prevail.
 
The third set was nearly identical to the second as this one featured 13 ties, but vastly different starts and finishes for both teams.  After battling evenly through eight points, the Titans used a quick four-point run to grab an 8-4 lead.  A Blue Jay service error jump-started the Titan run, which Olivia Breunig capped with a kill.
 
The Blue Jays used a 7-3 spurt of their own to pull even at 11 with a Jiliene Widener kill deadlocking things.  The teams would trade the next 12 points to force a tie at 17-17 before Oshkosh got back-to-back points off the hands of Wolff and Sami Perlberg that gave the Titans a 19-17 lead.  A Simone Adam kill and ace then sparked an 8-2 set-ending run for the Jays that included back-to-back Widener kills and a set-ending strike from Carlsen.
 
The fourth set Titan victory saw Oshkosh jump out to an 8-4 lead, only to have the Blue Jays reel them in and pull even at 10.  That was the first of six ties between 10 and 18, but Perlberg sparked a 7-1 set-ending run with three kills down the stretch to force the Blue Jays' third straight quarterfinal five-setter.
 
Widener paced the Blue Jays with a career-best 20 kills, while Carlsen (18), Adam (15) and Swafford (12) also reached double figures.  Freshman Michelle Tuszynski (40) and Carlsen (32) collected 72 of Hopkins' 90 digs in the victory and graduate student Kate Dahaner (37) and junior Helena Swaak (33) combined for 70 assists.
 
Perlberg rang up a match-high 23 kills, while Riley Kindt (15) and Wolff (11) combined for 26.  Three different Titans had more than 20 digs, including Perlberg, who added a team-high 35 to go with her 23 kills.
 
Carlsen's 18 kills pushed her past 1,000 in her career (1,009) – she is the 10^th player in program history to reach the 1,000-kill mark.
 
Johns Hopkins will take on Wisconsin-Whitewater in the NCAA Semifinals on Thursday at 5 pm.  The Warhawks eased past Emory in straight sets earlier on Wednesday afternoon.  The semifinals will air live on ESPN+.