LANCASTER, Pa.- The Franklin & Marshall volleyball team (15-4, 3-1 Centennial Conference) suffered a sweep (22-25, 22-25, 23-25) against visiting No. 8 Johns Hopkins (18-3, 5-0 Centennial Conference) on Saturday afternoon.

Ceci Connolly led the Diplomats offense with nine kills alongside two block assists, while Melissa Benkowitz posted eight kills, one solo block, and an ace. Coco Shultz led F&M with ten digs plus six kills with a .308 hitting percentage and two aces. Liah Perez assisted 20 times with two aces and five digs, while Carly Campbell provided eight assists with a team-best three aces. Mya Anderson was efficient in her attacking chances, hitting .375 with four kills. Abby Silinski had seven digs.

The teams traded serves in a contested start to the first set, tying up to a 4-4 scoreline. An Avery Grantham kill was followed by a Benkowitz ace to put F&M ahead, 6-4. They soon extended their lead with a three-point run for a 10-6 advantage. F&M maintained this four-point lead up to 12-8, but the Blue Jays rallied back with seven of the next eight points, registering four kills and two blocks, to now lead 15-13. A pair of three-point runs over the next phase of the set pushed their lead to 22-17, but F&M got back into contention with a 4-1 run to close the lead to 23-21. The Blue Jays were able to trade points to the end of the set, winning 25-22. 

F&M opened set two with the first five points on a sequence of a Connolly kill, Connolly-Claire Kelly block, and three attack errors from Johns Hopkins. The Blue Jays would begin to maintain pace, trailing 10-6 entering the middle of the set. At this point, they swung control back in their favor with a five-point run of their own to lead 11-10. The sides followed this with back-to-back two-point runs up to Hopkins leading 15-14. The Diplomats followed this up with three of the next four points, giving themselves a one-point lead. With F&M leading 19-18, the Blue Jays put together a 5-2 run that gave them a 23-21 advantage. They went on to close out the set on a kill and ace, winning 25-22 once again. 

While the Blue Jays began the third set with a 3-1 lead, F&M once again garnered an early lead with a five-point run that included a kill and solo block from Benkowitz. Ahead 6-3, the Diplomats used another 3-0 run with kills from Shultz, Grantham, and Campbell for a 9-4 lead. JHU closed back within one point, scoring five of the next six points to trail 10-9. Tied at 12-12, F&M took a three-point lead via a kill from Kelly, another block from Connolly and Kelly, and a kill from Connolly. The Blue Jays canceled that run out with a three-point run soon followed by another 3-0 run to lead, 18-16. Behind 21-19, F&M tied things up once again with two points, but Johns Hopkins scored the next three points to reach match point. F&M fought off the match point twice before a kill ended the match at 25-23.

The Diplomats will look to get back to winning form when they travel to Muhlenberg on Wednesday, October 22, at 7:00 p.m.