LANCASTER, Pa.- The Franklin & Marshall volleyball team (9-6, 2-0 Centennial Conference) earned a second-consecutive win to open the Centennial Conference schedule with a straight-set sweep (25-17, 25-16, 25-12) over McDaniel (8-5, 1-1 Centennial Conference) on Wednesday evening.
Melissa Benkowitz led the attack with 11 kills with a season-best .476 hitting percentage plus two aces and seven digs.
Mia Mascherino led the team with four service aces (tie for career-high) and 12 digs plus seven kills with a career-high .313 hitting percentage (minimum 15 attacks).
Carly Campbell recorded 25 assists and three aces, while
Melody Butzer totaled 12 assists.
Gretchen Eichelzer hit .429 with four kills, while
Claire Kelly swung .600 with three kills.
Chloe Wiedman reached 11 digs, while
Ceci Connolly had eight kills. .?????? ?????????????? %
The Green Terror opened set one with two points before a 6-0 run for the Diplomats with Mascherino at the service line where she recorded two of her aces. McDaniel stopped the run with a 2-2 stretch, followed by traded 3-0 runs from the teams to put F&M's lead at 11-7. The sides sparred up to a 15-10 scoreline before F&M broke away with four-straight points on a run with two kills from Benkowitz. F&M maintained the lead the rest of the way, closing the set on a kill from Mascherino followed by a block from
Mya Anderson and
Ceci Connolly.
Both sides swung north of .250 in the second set, including a match-best .371 for the Diplomats. F&M used a couple of six-plus-point runs to pull away from McDaniel in the middle stages. McDaniel claimed the first two points followed by back-to-back points from F&M. McDaniel broke a run of trading points with a 2-0 run for a modest 6-4 lead. A service error from the Green Terror kicked off a seven-point run from the Diplomats with two aces from Benkowitz plus two kills from Grantham, putting the hosts ahead, 11-6. McDaniel fought back over the next phase of the game, taking two of five points to stop the F&M run before scoring four points in a row, closing the lead to 14-12. A 6-0 run from F&M with two kills from Anderson plus a kill and an ace from Mascherino gave F&M a comfortable 20-12 lead they maintained to the finish, winning 25-16 on an attack error.
F&M began set three with a 3-0 run, although McDaniel closed the gap with back-to-back points. F&M claimed three of the next four points for a 6-3 lead that they soon extended to 12-6. McDaniel claimed the next two points to close within four, but F&M cruised to a 22-9 lead courtesy of a 10-1 run where Campbell had two aces and Connolly recorded back-to-back kills. F&M traded points to the finish, winning on an attack error from their opponents who struggled to a match-low -0.042 hitting percentage in the third set.Â
The Diplomats return in one week's time with a trip to Gettysburg on Wednesday, October 14, at 7 p.m.
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