Box Score

BALTIMORE, Md. – Franklin & Marshall's volleyball team dropped a hard-fought 3-0 (24-26, 23-25, 20-25) match to Johns Hopkins in the Centennial Conference (CC) Championship on Sunday afternoon.

The Diplomats fall to 20-7 while the Blue Jays improved to 29-0 and earned the Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

In the opening set, F&M took a 12-7 advantage before Johns Hopkins claimed five consecutive points to even the score, 12-12. The Diplomats then poured in a 12-5 run to take a 24-17 lead before the Blue Jays surged back again, winning the final nine points of the set to stun F&M, 26-24.

After overcoming an early 6-2 deficit in set two, the Diplomats tied the score at six. F&M traded short runs with Johns Hopkins to be down by just one point, 13-12. The Blue Jays took six of the next seven to take a 19-13 lead, but F&M rallied again to tie the score at 23 before Johns Hopkins tacked on the set's final two points to take the 25-23 victory.

In set three, the Diplomats took an early 11-3 advantage, including a 5-0 run headlined by three Carly Ostrowski service aces. However, Johns Hopkins went on a 17-5 run, including a stretch of six consecutive points and nine of ten points, to take a 20-16 lead. F&M took three of the next four points to get the score back within one, 21-20, but the Blue Jays took the final four points to thwart F&M's title hopes.

Grace Polisano paced the Diplomats with nine kills. Allison Franke and Nicole Carey each had eight. Grace Maggiore racked up 31 assists.

Carlita Bozzo tallied 21 digs to lead F&M's defense.

F&M learns its NCAA fate Monday as the team looks to earn a bid to the national tournament for the second consecutive season. Stay tuned to GoDiplomats.com as more information is made available.