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JHU Clinches Number One Seed in Centennial
BALTIMORE, MD - The Johns Hopkins women's volleyball team swept three straight opponents at Goldfarb Gym, Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays honored senior Melissa Cole as they clinched the number one seed in the upcoming Centennial Conference Tournament and earned the rights to host the championships starting next Friday.
The Blue Jays swept CC foe, Gettysburg to earn the top seed in the conference before sweeping non-conference opponents Carnegie Mellon and Mary Washington. Hopkins improves to 23-4 on the season with 13-straight wins and posts a perfect 10-0 record in the Centennial for the first time in program history.
Hopkins opened the day with a 3-0 sweep of Gettysburg. The Blue Jays needed just one set win to earn the top seed, but were not going to be satisfied without a win over their conference foe. The Blue Jays easily won the first set, 25-10, behind hard-hitting freshman Meagan Donohoe. Donohoe led the match with 11 kills to add to her 28 kills on the afternoon. With the first set win securing their fate in the conference tournament, the Blue Jays cruised to their seventh conference sweep with set scores of 25-22 and 25-16 in the final two sets.
The Blue Jays honored Cole before the opening match as she is the only senior on the 2011 squad. Cole had six kills in the match.
Because of last minute schedule changes due to the wintery weather in the Mid-Atlantic region, the Blue Jays then squared off against regional opponent, Carnegie Mellon. Hopkins did not skip a beat from the Gettysburg match and swept through the Tartans by set scores of 25-20, 25-11, 25-15. In the closest set of the match, led by as many as 11 points, 22-11, before the Tartans battled back and scored seven straight points after the Blue Jays earned their first set-point at 24-14 to pull within four, 24-20 but the Blue Jays closed out the set for a 25-20 victory. From that point, Hopkins had control of the match and scored six-straight points before Carnegie Mellon got on the board in the second set. The Blue Jays flew to a second set win, 25-11. Hopkins closed out the match with a 25-15 third set victory to earn its second match win of the afternoon.
The Blue Jays finished out the afternoon facing regularly-schedule
Mary Washington for the fourth match and third Blue Jay match of
the day. Hopkins jumped out to an early 1-0 set lead with a 25-19
victory in the opening frame. As it has been standard for the Blue
Jays on their home court, Hopkins defeated the Eagles 25-18 in the
second set and 25-19 in the third to complete its third sweep on
the afternoon.
Donohoe finished the afternoon with 28 kills, while Cole had 19 kills and eight digs. Freshman Mariel Metalios handed out 59 assists and collected six aces in the three victories. Classmate Anne Cohen chipped in a team-high 43 digs on the afternoon.
The Blue Jays have now won 18 straight home matches, dating back to last season, to set a new school record for straight home wins with the previous record set at 14.
More details of the 2011 Centennial Conference volleyball tournament will be announced Monday afternoon. Stay tuned to HopkinsSports.com for more details.
