BALTIMORE, MD – Playing at home for the first time in three weeks, the Johns Hopkins volleyball team picked up its second straight victory as the Blue Jays topped Scranton in five sets in the opening match of the 2026 Hopkins Invitational. The victory bumps the Blue Jays to 5-5 on the year, while the Royals slip to 6-5.
After Scranton rallied to win the fourth set and force a fifth, the Blue Jays took control early in the deciding set as they sprinted out to a 6-2 lead that forced a Royal timeout. Three
Ivy Swafford kills ignited the early spurt for Johns Hopkins, which never trailed in the set. The lead was 10-3 after
Josephine Kinlan put one away, but Scranton answered by taking five of the next seven points, the last off the hand of Adria Vargas, to pull within 12-8. Another Swafford strike halted the run and
Celine Ebert polished off the victory with her season-best 17
th kill of the night.
The Blue Jays took the first set 25-17 as they closed with an 8-2 spurt to grab the early lead. Up just 17-15 after an Angela Bush kill for the Royals, the Blue Jays used an Ebert kill and Scranton attacking error to spark the set-ending run. After a Scranton timeout, the Blue Jays added pair of Ebert kills and one each from
Jordan Price and Kinlan to push out to a 23-15 lead and closed it out with another Ebert kill on set point.
The Royals evened things up with an identical 25-17 win in the second set. An Ebert kill had the Jays within 14-12 midway through the set, but the Royals would close with an 11-6 run to ease to the eight-point victory. Back-to-back kills form Ava Seidenstein and Vargas followed the Ebert kill to extend the lead to four and another Vargas kill would spark a 6-0 run after the Jays had pulled within 18-16. An Andi Fortmeyer strike would end things for Scranton.
Johns Hopkins would come from behind to grab the pivotal third set 25-21. After trailing 7-4 early, the Blue Jays would pull even at 9-9 on a Kinlan kill and grabbed the lead a moment later on a Swafford ace. The Royals answered with a 7-3 run that Bush capped to make it 16-13, but the Blue Jays had it even at 17 on a Swafford kill and took the lead for good on a
Sami Hockers ace. The Royals were within 23-21 with the serve, but an attacking error and another Kinlan kill gave the Blue Jays the one-set advantage.
The Royals needed extra points to force the fifth and deciding set as they came from behind late to grab a 27-25 victory. In a set that saw 13 ties and six lead changes, the Blue Jays were twice at set point (24-23, 25-24), but Scranton got a Fortmeyer kill to pull even at 25, used an attack error by the Blue Jays to grab a 26-25 lead and then won it on a Bush kill, the 17
th of the set for the Royals, who hit .441 to send it to five, where Johns Hopkins would prevail.
Swafford paced the Blue Jays with a career-high 25 kills, which give her 49 in her last two matches and 20 or more in three of the last four. Ebert (17) and Kinlan (15) combined for 32 kills as the Blue Jays' big three combined for 57 of JHU's 69 kills in the victory.
Annika Anderson (29 assists, 12 digs) and Hockers (24, 9) ran a Blue Jay offense that hit .291 for the match, while
Nicole Tuszynski collected a team-high 27 of the Blue Jays' 80 digs in the victory.
Bush was one of four Royals to reach double figures in kills as she collected a team-high 16, while Seidenstein added 14. Cami Quirk collected 49 assists and Audrey Hibbard added a team-high 19 digs in the loss.
The Blue Jays will make a quick return to the floor as they will host St. John Fisher on Saturday morning in their second and final match of the Hopkins Invitational (10 am).
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