LANCASTER, Pa.- The Franklin & Marshall volleyball team (18-4, 6-1 Centennial Conference) dispatched visiting Ursinus (7-14, 1-6 Centennial Conference) in straight sets (25-19, 25-11, 25-16) on Wednesday night.

Melissa Benkowitz recorded a team-high eight kills on a .318 hitting percentage with seven digs, while Coco Shultz led the team with 13 digs plus three aces and seven kills. Liah Perez posted 20 assists across the three sets with five digs, while Carly Campbell posted 13 assists, three aces, and seven digs. Ceci Connolly swung .333 with eight kills. Mya Anderson hit .444 with four kills, while Kendall Lee posted three aces. Abby Silinski had the second-most digs with eight. 

The teams traded serves to begin the match up to a 4-4 tie. This began a four-point run for F&M with a pair of Anderson kill for a 7-4 lead. Ursinus scored the next two points before the Diplomats posted five unanswered points of their own on a run with two Avery Grantham kills. Yet again, the Bears closed back within a point with a countering five-point run at 12-11, but the Diplomats began to build a gap, scoring six of the next eight points to lead 18-13. F&M held a lead around this margin up to a Connolly set-point kill at 25-19. 

After beginning the second set with a 5-1 lead, the Diplomats soon pulled away by double digits with an eight-point run that featured two aces from Campbell, two kills from Shultz, and three-consecutive attack errors from the Bears. The Diplomats, now ahead 13-2, maintained this gap through the middle of the set, leading 20-8 entering the final stages. Ursinus scored three-straight points, but this was swiftly countered with a 5-0 Diplomats run to finish the second game, as three-consecutive aces from Lee closed out the set.

An opening 4-1 lead for F&M was canceled out by three-straight Ursinus points to tie the set at 4-4. The Diplomats broke the deadlock by scoring six of the next seven points for a 10-5 advantage. With their lead at 12-8 in the middle of the set, they used yet another 6-1 run that included a kill and an ace from Benkowitz for a 18-9 advantage. The Bears roared back with a 5-1 run to close the lead to 19-4. F&M regained momentum to close out the set, finishing on a 6-2 run with two Jillian Surkis kills and closing the set on an attack error at 25-16. 

F&M hosts Dickinson and celebrates the program's seniors, Liah Perez and Coco Shultz, on Saturday, November 1, at 1:00 p.m in the regular season home finale.