Franklin & Marshall College

CARLISLE, Pa.- The Franklin & Marshall volleyball team (15-6, 8-0 Centennial Conference) earned the side's fourth-straight sweep (25-21, 25-15, 25-16) on Saturday afternoon, concluding the regular-season road slate at Dickinson (16-8, 8-3 Centennial Conference).

Three Diplomats recorded eight kills, including Claire Kelly, who hit .400, Avery Grantham, and Melissa Benkowitz. Kelly lalso ed the front-row defense with two solo blocks and one block assist, Benkowitz had five digs, and Grantham totaled two block assists. Melody Butzer led the side with 15 assists with seven digs, while Carly Campbell had 14 assists with two aces. Maile Lani Sugamura totaled a team-best four aces, while Abby Silinski had a team-high nine digs. Mia Mascherino had seven kills with two aces and five digs.

F&M kicked off the match with a 7-1 lead on a run where Kelly guided F&M with three kills. The Red Devils countered  by scoring seven of the next nine points to cut the lead to 9-8. Grantham red the F&M rally that followed, as she delivered three kills on a 6-1 run that returned F&M's lead to six points. F&M traded points for a spell that saw them enter the end of the set with a 23-18 advantage. Dickinson closed within two points with a 3-0 run, but F&M quelled the comeback with a Grantham kill and a match-point setting error. 
Mia Mascherino opened the second game with a kill and an ace that gave F&M a 3-0 lead. Dickinson answered with two blocks on a set-tying three-point run. Benkowitz stopped the run with a kill, but Dickinson kept up momentum by scoring five of the next seven points for an 8-6 advantage. At this point, F&M reclaimed the lead with a four-point run led by two more kills from Kelly. The Red Devils tied the set with a kill, but that was followed by a pair of 5-0 runs from F&M that gave them a 20-12 lead. The first run saw a kill and an ace from Mascherino with three attack errors, while three of Sugamura's kills came on the run that followed. F&M traded points to the end of the set, winning 25-15 on a kill from Kelly. 

Three-straight errors from Dickinson gave the visitors an early lead that they maintained early in set three up to an 8-5 lead. The Red Devils tied the game with three-straight points before a service error began a 6-1 run for F&M that pushed their lead up to 14-9. F&M continued to consistently build on the lead in the middle of the set, capitalizing on three errors from their opponents in a four-point span to extend the lead to 19-12. Dickinson tallied two-straight points followed by a 4-0 run where Grantham had two kills and a block assist to get within two points of winning the match. The Red Devils scored two points on offense before a Mascherino kill and a block from Kelly confirmed the result. 

The Diplomats need just two more wins to secure the program's sixth perfect Centennial Conference record, and they'll seek the first of those two wins when they host Bryn Mawr on Wednesday, November 4, at 7 p.m.