BALTIMORE – The Franklin & Marshall volleyball team raced out to a 1-0 lead over top-seeded Johns Hopkins before the Blue Jays (21-7) came back for a 3-1 victory (24-26, 25-14, 25-15, 25-21) in the 2022 Centennial Conference Championship match. The Diplomats (18-9) were looking to avenge their second of just two Centennial Conference defeats from the regular season after defeating Swarthmore earlier in the week during the conference semifinals.

Gianna Mangiamele continued her outstanding Centennial Conference Tournament with 18 more kills and just two errors in 33 attempts as she hit .485 during the championship match. Coco Shultz added six more kills, with Sydney Levins and Makenna Penuel both adding five for the Diplomats. Liah Perez led the team with 20 assists as Hannah McCarthy dished out 18 more.

The thrilling opening set was tied on 10 different occasions. Tied at eight-all early, F&M ran off three straight points behind kills from Levins and Mangiamele that prompted a Blue Jay timeout. Franklin & Marshall pushed its lead all the way to five points at both 14-9 and eventually 19-14 before the Blue Jays came within a point at 20-19. Just a couple points later, the Diplomats found themselves fighting off match point down 24-23 before winning three straight points to claim the game. Kills from Jada West and Mangiamele gave F&M its own set point before a huge block from Mangiamele and Lauren Arnold put the Diplomats up 1-0.

Trailing for one of the few times this season, Johns Hopkins raced out to a 8-2 advantage and never looked back in the second despite the Diplomats winning three consecutive points before JHU evened the match behind a 25-14 second set. Tied at four-all in the third, Johns Hopkins again jumped out to an early edge by scoring five straight to set the pace for its 25-15 win.

Johns Hopkins again had a 7-2 lead in the fourth set, but the Diplomats would close that deficit to 11-9 with their season on the line. A strong service from Mikayla Smith later helped the Diplomats get back into the set at 18-14, but F&M could come no closer in the eventual 25-21 final that saw the Diplomats save four match points.

In addition to the team's offensive leaders, Perez added a team-high 15 digs to her 20 helpers. Meredith Mangum came up with 13 more digs on defense as both she and Levins finished the match with two service aces.

Franklin & Marshall was making its Centennial Conference record 14th consecutive appearance in the Centennial Conference Tournament. Today's appearance marked the team's ninth trip to the Championship match since the tournament format begin in 1997.