It was a very busy weekend for the Hopkins volleyball team as the Blue Jays went up against the Stevens Institute of Technology Ducks, and the Franklin & Marshall College Diplomats.
Friday’s matchup against the Ducks paid tribute to libero Esther Hong, outside hitter/middle blocker Sasha Gorelik and outside hitter Michelle Abt as the seniors competed in their last regular season match in the Goldfarb Gymnasium.
The Ducks were able to get off to a hot start against the Blue Jays, sweeping the first five points and taking a 12-7 and then a 16-10 lead later on in the opening set. Hopkins would cut Stevens’ lead to one, taking six of the next seven points, but the Ducks would widen the lead to four via three straight points on their end. The Jays would continue to rally back and eventually reach set point at 25-24 to take the set into extra serves, where Stevens continued to battle but couldn’t hold off the surging Hopkins team who captured a 28-26 win off of two straight kills from freshman outside hitter Eleni Panagopoulos.
Despite the Ducks taking a 5-1 lead early in set two, Hopkins would ride the momentum from the exciting first set to go on to take a 9-7 lead. From there, the Blue Jays would not surrender their lead the rest of the set as they went on to take their second set of the day by a score of 25-19.
Continuing the trend of strong starts, Stevens would take an early 6-2 lead in the third set. Hopkins would once again rally back against the Ducks as they cut the lead to one at 7-6, but unlike in set two, Stevens would not allow Hopkins to gain any momentum back. The Ducks would score the next two points to get the lead back to three and would go on a 7-0 run later in the set to give them a 20-11 lead before eventually taking the third set by a score of 25-16.
The fourth set looked in favor of the Ducks, who were feeling the momentum of their dominant third set as they took a 5-3 lead to start the set and pulled ahead to a 17-13 lead midway through. Not to be denied on senior day, however, Hopkins scored three in a row to cut the deficit to one and would tie the set at 20-20 just minutes later. The two squads would trade the next six points to tie it up once again at 23-23 before the Blue Jays took the match 25-23.
Sophomore outside hitter Simone Bliss led with 17 kills with junior outside hitter Louisa Kishton having 13 of her own to go along with 18 digs. Freshman middle blocker Lauren Anthony would capture double digit kills with 10, while sophomore setter Nicole Hada would lead the team with 49 assists.
The matchup was full of ups and downs for the Blue Jays, but in the end they came away with the victory. Abt reflected on the win.
“We had great moments of finding our flow together as a team and moments of hesitancy, although more of the former,“ she said.
The weekend would end in thrilling fashion, with the top two teams in the Conference battling it out for the top seed in the Centennial Conference tournament, as Hopkins traveled to Lancaster, Pa. to go up against the Franklin & Marshall Diplomats.
F&M would get off to a hot start against the Blue Jays with a 7-2 lead, but they couldn’t keep the Blue Jays down for long, as Hopkins would get within one at 10-9 before capturing their first lead of the set off of a four-point surge to go up 13-11 over the Diplomats. F&M would respond by retaking the lead on the back of two separate three-point streaks and would go on to take the first set by a score of 25-20.
Hopkins would respond with a strong start of their own, taking a 7-3 lead to start the second set. The Diplomats would get within four at the 14-10 mark, but the Blue Jays were simply too much in the second set and wouldn’t allow F&M to get within four the rest of the set, evening the match at ones with a 25-18 victory.
The Diplomats would repeat their strong start from the first set as they took a 6-1 lead against the Blue Jays to start the third. Just as F&M would repeat their hot start, the Blue Jays would repeat their resilient response by once again cutting the lead to one. After a back and forth for the next several points, the Diplomats would go on a 6-1 run to gain some traction on their Conference foes before another strong answer by the Blue Jays would tie the set up at 20. Both teams would continue to battle as they tied the set at 24, but F&M would capture the set in set point by a score of 26-24.
In the fourth set, it was Hopkins who would get off to a hot start by way of a 10-4 early lead. The Blue Jays would eventually push their lead to 16-9, but the Diplomats would rattle off eight straight points to take their first lead of the set. With the score tied at 20, Hopkins would score four in a row and look to even the match before the Diplomats would get to set point with four straight of their own. However, a kill by Kishton and an attack error on F&M allowed Hopkins to tie the match at 2-2 with a 26-24 win.
In the fifth and final set, however, neither team would be able to gain much ground on the other midway as F&M led by just one at 7-6. The Diplomats looked to take the match when a three-point streak gave them a 13-8 lead, but Hopkins got within one on the back of winning five of six points. However, that was the closest the Blue Jays would get, as two points later F&M took the set and the match 15-13.
Bliss would lead the team with 23 kills and was one of four with ten or more, with Kishton adding five and Anthony and Abt accounting for 11 each. Hada let the team with 56 assists while Kishton led with 21 digs.
With double-doubles in both of these games, Kishton was named the Centennial Conference Player of the Week. It is her second time winning the award on the season.
At the end of the regular season the Blue Jays ended up with five players with over 100 kills on the season: Bliss, Kishton, Abt, Panagopoulos and Anthony. Hada ended the year with over nine assists per set, leading the team by a wide margin.
Three Blue Jays battled all season for the team lead in service aces, and Kishton eventually won the battle. She ended the season with 44 aces, Abt with 40 and Hada with 38 for the top three spots on the team.
On the defensive side, Kishton led the team in digs, averaging almost four per set. Hong took second place on the list, averaging 2.76 digs per set. Anthony and Abt led the way with blocks, with 47 and 41, respectively.
As the Blue Jays closed out their regular season and now look forward to their Conference playoffs, and, potentially, the NCAA tournament, Abt commented on the week ahead.
“We are grateful to be back in the gym training this week, working on cleaning up some things to be fully prepared to crush it this weekend,“ she said.
The loss to the Diplomats gives the Blue Jays the No. 2 seed in the Centennial Conference tournament. They will travel again to Lancaster, Pa. on Saturday to take on the Swarthmore College Garnet at 3:30 p.m. in their opening match of the postseason.
If they win that match, they will most likely get a rematch with Franklin & Marshall to determine which team will win the Centennial Conference and earn an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament. That game would take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday in Lancaster, Pa.
