LANCASTER, Pa.- The Franklin & Marshall volleyball team (22-6, 9-1 Centennial Conference) earned four All-Centennial Conference selections for 2025. Ceci Connolly and Liah Perez landed on the first team, Coco Shultz moved up from honorable mention in 2024 to the second team in 2025, while Melissa Benkowitz earned an honorable mention nod. Paula Elguera represents the Diplomats on the conference's All-Sportsmanship Team. The coaching staff, led by Mary Kate Salko '01, earned the conference's Coaching Staff of the Year Award.

Senior setter Liah Perez earned back-to-back first-team selections, marking three consecutive seasons on all-conference teams. She's been pivotal to F&M's attack in setting and at the service line, as her conference-leading 0.65 aces per set ranks 44th in Division III. She also ranks second in the conference in assists per set (5.80). 

Sophomore outside hitter Ceci Connolly earned her first All-Centennial Conference selection with a spot on the first team. Among Centennial Conference attackers in 2025, she ranks fifth in hitting percentage (.309), seventh in kills per set (3.21), and seventh in points per set (3.53). 

Senior outside hitter Coco Shultz followed up a 2024 campaign where she landed on the honorable mention team with a second-team selection in 2025. Among Centennial Conference players, she ranks second in aces per set (0.64) and eighth in points per set (3.51). She also leads F&M by averaging 3.14 digs per set. In 2025, she became the 11th Diplomats to reach both 1,000 career points and digs. 

Junior outside hitter Melissa Benkowitz is a first-time all-conference player, landing on the All-Centennial Conference Honorable Mention team. Among Centennial players, she ranks a team-best sixth in points per set (3.72) and sixth in kills per set (3.26). She was a one-time Centennial Conference Offensive Player of the Week

Junior middle blocker Paula Elguera represents the Diplomats on the Centennial Conference All-Sportsmanship team. Elguera has been an effective part of F&M's front-row defense, leading the team by averaging 0.63 blocks per set.

Mary Kate Salko '01, Chris Salko, and Caroline Boehm were named the All-Centennial Conference Coaching Staff of the Year following the team's 22-6, 9-1 Centennial Conference performance to date. It marks the third time Salko has earned the award as head coach, having previously won the honor in 2012 and 2018. Across Division III, the Diplomats rank 13th in assists per set (12.55), 15th in kills per set (13.42), and 19th in aces per set (2.88), leading the conference in aces per set. They also rank second in the conference in assists per set, kills per set, hitting percentage (.233), points per set (17.82), opponent hitting percentage (.131), and third in digs per set (16.76). The team's .786 winning percentage to date ranks as the third best during Salko's tenure as head coach, and it's the highest since 2013's .800 winning percentage. The 9-1 Centennial Conference record is the team's best since they were 9-1 and Centennial Conference Tournament finalists in 2019. 

For the 11th time in program history, the Franklin & Marshall volleyball team will be playing in the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Tournament, facing (RV) Williams in the first round on Thursday, November 20, at 4:30 p.m. at the Cambridge, Massachusetts regional on the campus of MIT. Franklin & Marshall booked a spot in the tournament following a 22-6, 9-1 Centennial Conference campaign that culminated in the team's first Centennial Conference Tournament Championship appearance since 2022, falling in four sets to No. 9 Johns Hopkins. The Diplomats earned back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, which is the first time the program's appeared in the tournament in consecutive seasons following the team's five-year run from 1996 through 2000.