Oct. 7, 2006 - A release written by Elizabeth Webber -

LANCASTER, PA - Outside hitter Margot Phelan recorded 12 kills and 21 digs to lead the Franklin & Marshall women's volleyball team to a 3-2 (30-21, 29-31, 30-25, 25-30, 21-19) victory over Centennial Conference (CC) rival Johns Hopkins University Saturday, October 7, 2006.

In the final game of the night, F&M led the entire way but eventually fell behind 14-15. Fending off a match point, outside hitter Maritza Fair tipped the ball passed the JHU defense to tie the game at 15-all. The Diplomats fell behind four more times, but kills by Phelan, Fair, and right side hitter Erica Spangler kept them in the match. F&M capitalized on two Hopkins errors to go up 20-19 before middle hitter Susan Taylor recorded her 11th kill of the night to lead F&M to a 21-19 game victory and their sixth CC match win of the season.

In the first game, a service run by Phelan took the Diplomats took a quick 5-2 lead. Hopkins knotted the score at 5-5 and battled to keep up with the Diplomats the whole game, but it wasn't enough, as the Diplomats used a service run by setter Holly Cordisco and six kills by Fair to pull out of range. Finishing the game at 30-21, the Diplomats went up 1-0 in the match.

F&M jumped ahead again in the second game, but Johns Hopkins didn't let the home team pull away. JHU fell behind 16-8 but rallied back to tie the score at 21-all and eventually take a 25-26 lead. Despite exchanging the lead once more, the Diplomats were unable to penetrate the Hopkins defense. JHU won 29-31 to knot the match score at 1-1.

The third game was back and fourth in the beginning, but after tying the score at 12-all, the Diplomats pushed ahead and never looked back. Hopkins called a time out as they trailed 17-12, but it wasn't enough to push the momentum in their favor. F&M went up 2-1 in the match with a decisive 30-25 victory.

The fourth game was another struggle for the Diplomats, as their defense kept them in the game but offense was shutdown by JHU. Knotting the game at 11-all and 15-all, the Diplomats held on until Hopkins went on a 5-0 service run to push their lead out to 29-23 and eventually defeat the Diplomats 30-25.

Fair recorded a game high 18 kills, while Taylor had 11 kills, one solo block, and one block assist. Spangler recorded 11 kills and two block assists. Cordisco record 47 assists, four service aces, two block assists, and three kills, as defensive specialist Samantha Evans totaled 10 digs and one service ace. Captain Nicole Kushman had 15 digs, and middle blocker Alexis Dansky had seven kills and two block assists.

This game marks the Diplomats' second consecutive win over JHU, as F&M defeated the Blue Jays 3-1 in the semifinals of the 2005 CC Conference Champions after falling to them 3-1 during the regular season.

F&M continues CC play Wednesday, October 11, as they face McDaniel College away. Game time is schedule for 7:00 p.m.