NEW YORK -   The No. 2 Johns Hopkins women's volleyball team was back on the road to take on eleventh-ranked NYU on Day 1 of the NYU Invitational Friday evening, claiming its fourth ranked win of the season with a 3-1 (25-16, 19-25, 27-25, 25-15) victory over the Violets. The win was Matt Troy's 200^th as the Blue Jays' head coach and moves Hopkins to 9-1 on the year while the loss drops NYU to 8-3.
 
It was Simone Adam leading the charge in kills for the fifth straight contest, tallying a match-high 14 with Jilienne Widener also eclipsing double figures with 10 — the graduate student's first time reaching double digits since the Blue Jays' win over Emory. Simrin Carlsen racked up a season-high four service aces to pair with her 19 digs while defensively it was Pater pacing Hopkins once again by tying her career-best in blocks set earlier this season with eight in a complete team effort.
 
Set 1 belonged to the Blue Jays' attack, which hit a match-best .419 compared to .250 for the Violets in a set Hopkins won comfortably. The Blue Jays rode Widener early, with the graduate student tallying Hopkins' first three kills to go in front 5-3 before Carlsen rattled off three consecutive kills of her own to put the Jays up 11-7.
 
NYU stayed within striking distance after a Catherine Maffei kill made it 15-10, but a kill from Adam — the junior's third of the frame — started a 5-0 run to double up the Violets at 20-10. The hosts would attempt a comeback, getting as close as 22-16 following a 6-2 burst before Chiakpo registered her second kill of the stanza to kickstart a set-closing 3-0 run to clinch the first set 25-16.
 
The script was flipped in Friday's second set, with Hopkins' hitting percentage dropping to a team-low .086 while the Violets' climbed to .290 in a frame the hosts took to level things at one. The set was close through the first half, with the Blue Jays using a pair of 3-0 runs to take the lead at 8-7 and cut the deficit to one at 14-13 following a 4-0 stint by the Violets, but it was the hosts turning a pair of kills into an extended 8-2 run to jump in front 22-15. A 4-0 response by Hopkins was answered with a 3-0 burst by NYU to close out the set 25-19.
 
Set 3 was one full of runs, with the Blue Jays seeing their nine-point lead early in the set evaporate before having to come back in extra points to take the set 27-25. Up 10-6 following a pair of kills from Ivy Swafford, Hopkins saw its lead balloon to 17-8 following a 4-0 spurt that featured kills from Widener, Chiakpo and Adam as well as the Blue Jays' third block of the match. The Violets trimmed into the lead, getting it down to 19-16, but consecutive attacking errors put Hopkins back in the driver's seat at 21-16.
 
Instead of closing out the frame, however, it was NYU rattling off the next seven points to take its first lead since it was 5-4 at 23-21. The Violets had two chances to take the set at 24-23 and 25-24, but a Widener kill leveled things at 25 before a Carlsen ace and Adam ender prevented the comeback and put Hopkins back in front two sets to one.
 
In a match in which the Blue Jays had tallied just three blocks, it was Hopkins' defense that answered the call in the fourth and final set, piling on seven rejections to hold the Violets to a match-low hitting percentage of -.073.
 
After the Blue Jays used a pair of blocks by Pater and Widener to jump out to an early 5-1 lead it was NYU scoring the next four points to tie things at five. Another Pater-Widener rejection ignited a 4-0 Blue Jays run to go back in front 9-5, and after the Violets tied things again at 10 it was a Carlsen kill that would put Hopkins back up and give the Blue Jays a lead they would not relinquish. Carlsen's ender — the senior's ninth of the match — would turn into an 11-3 run capped off by Widener's 10^th and final kill to make it a 21-13 set.
 
Attempting another comeback, the Violets scored back-to-back points, but the lead was too great as the Blue Jays scored the next four points, with an Adam kill wrapping up the set 25-15 and giving Hopkins the 3-1 victory.
 
The Blue Jays return to action Saturday, Sept. 21 to take on UC Santa Cruz and eighth-ranked MIT, with match times set for 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. respectively.