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Johns Hopkins Sweeps St. Mary's, 3-0, to Stay Unbeaten
Sept. 6, 2011
BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins volleyball team swept visiting St. Mary’s, 3-0, on Tuesday night to remain unbeaten on the season at 5-0. The Blue Jays won 25-11, 25-19, 28-26 to win in three games for the fourth time this season. The Seahawks fall to 1-3 on the season.
Hopkins got off to a hot start, taking a quick 9-4 lead before building it to 18-7 and closed it out at 25-11. The Seahawks could not string together more than one point as the Blue Jay offense kept them at bay. St. Mary’s seemed to settle in by the second game as Hopkins won by just six points. The teams traded points in the early going before Hopkins pushed out to an 8-3 lead. St. Mary’s called timeout and got two points back, but Hopkins put together a 5-1 run to take a 13-6 lead. The Seahawks cut it back to five, but the Blue Jays once again answered, this time with a 7-1 run to take a seemingly commanding 20-10 lead. St. Mary’s wasn’t going away easy however as the Seahawks put together an 8-3 run to make it a 23-18 game. Hopkins was able to close out the game and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
St. Mary’s used the momentum from the end of the second to take charge early in the third game. The Seahawks had leads of 4-2, 5-3 and 6-4 before Hopkins got five straight points to go on top 9-6. SMC called timeout out and came out swinging with a 9-1 run to retake the lead at 15-10. Hopkins battled back, slowly chipping away at the lead and finally knotted things up at 21-21. St. Mary’s retook the lead with three unanswered points to have game point at 24-21. But the Blue Jays got four straight points on the serve of freshman Allison Chisenhall to put Hopkins on top 25-24. The teams traded the next three points before Hopkins got two straight, punctuated by freshman Hayley Weidenbenner’s seventh kill of the night, to take the game and the match.
Senior Melissa Cole led the Blue Jays with her third double-double of the season, finishing with 14 kills and 10 digs. Junior Amelia Thomas also had 10 digs, while sophomore Becky Paynter had 31 assists. Freshman Katie Schwarz posted 10 kills, while her twin sister Megan had eight. For the Seahawks, Gena Hlavinka had seven kills and three digs, while Ceclia Blanc also had seven kills. Rachel Wilson finished with a 17 assists for SMC.
Hopkins returns to action on Friday, September 9 as the Blue Jays travel to Cleveland, OH for the Marcia French Memorial Tournament. JHU will take on host Case Western at 4:00 pm in a match that will be webcast here. Hopkins will then face Bluffton at 8:00 pm.
