BALTIMORE, MD – The third-seeded Johns Hopkins volleyball team entered its first-round matchup against sixth-seeded Gettysburg in the Centennial Tournament on Wednesday night battling history, but with history on its side as well.
The Blue Jays were just 1-6 all-time in the tournament as the number three seed. Of course, none of those matches had taken place since the tournament expanded to six teams. Those seven matches were played when only the top four teams in the final standings qualified for the tournament.
On the flip side, Hopkins entered the Wednesday night's match having won 18 consecutive matches in the tournament dating back to 2016 with nine consecutive conference crowns to its credit.
Something had to give.
Something did.
The Blue Jays (16-8) spotted the Bullets a one-set lead, then rallied to win the final three sets to grab a 3-1 win that advances them to the Centennial Conference Semifinals, where they will meet second-seeded Swarthmore on Friday night.
The Bullets (18-9) never trailed in the first set, jumping out to an early three-point lead and holding off several Blue Jay runs to grab a 25-18 victory. Gettysburg had a 13-7 lead after a Blue Jay attack error, but an
Ella Wismer kill sparked a 4-0 run that brought the Blue Jays within two at 13-11. The Bullets responded with a 7-3 spot that gave them a 20-13 lead and the Blue Jays were never closer than four down the stretch.
Emma Bradshaw had a pair of kills during the decisive 7-3 run and an
Ava Grall kill ended things a short time later.
The Blue Jays flipped the script in the second set as they never trailed in taking the set 25-17. After the teams split the first four points, Johns Hopkins used a 7-1 run to grab a 9-3 lead. Sophomore
Celine Ebert (3) and senior
Ivy Swafford (2) collected five of the seven points during the spurt for the Blue Jays. The Bullets would get as close as 14-11 on a
Kaitlyn Hedrich ace, but another Swafford kill would ignite a set-ending 11-6 run for Johns Hopkins that included three kills each for Swafford, Ebert and
Anna Pantano.
Unlike the first two sets, which saw no lead changes and just one tie, a third-set thriller saw 16 ties before the Blue Jays pulled out a 25-23 victory. The back-and-forth affair saw the teams battle to 13 ties in evenly splitting the first 30 points before the Blue Jays created the slightest separation on a three-point run on the hand of Swafford, who had one kill and two service aces during the spurt. The Bullets had it even again at 20, 21 and 22 before the Blue Jays got back-to-back points on a Wismer kill and a Bullet attacking error. Gettysburg fought off one set point on a Hopkins service error, but Ebert's third kill of the set gave the Blue Jays the set victory.
The fourth-set clincher was all Blue Jays early as they sprinted to a 7-3 lead and later led 13-5 after a
Bethany Sherwood kill and a Bullet attacking error. As quickly as they had built the eight-point lead, it was nearly gone as Gettysburg answered with a 7-1 spurt of its own that was started by a Grall kill and capped with a Blue Jay attacking error. A Wismer kill for the Blue Jays halted the run, but the Bullets were still within striking distance at 19-15 with the serve, but the Blue Jays would get six of the final 10 points to grab the 25-19 match-clinching victory. A pair of late Pantano kills helped seal the victory for the Blue Jays.
Swafford (21), Wismer (14), Ebert (11) and Pantano (11) combined for 57 kills to lead the way offensively for the Blue Jays.
Annika Anderson (37) and
Sami Hockers (21) totaled 58 assists between them and Swafford (21) and
Nicole Tuszynski (20) rang up 41 digs between them.
The Bullets got a team-high nine kills from Bradshaw and Grall added eight, but no other Bullet had more than four and Gettysburg had just 33 kills in the match.
Halle Feth (15) and Hedrick (13) totaled 28 assists between them and
Kierra Fox added a team-high 14 digs in the loss.
The win avenges a 3-1 loss to the Bullets on the same floor just seven days ago.
On Friday night at Swarthmore, the Blue Jays will face another team that topped them earlier this season in the Garnet, who grabbed a five-set win in Baltimore on October 14.
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