The Johns Hopkins Volleyball team faced the Carnegie Mellon Tartans in what had the potential to be their final game of the season last weekend. The Blue Jays traveled to Moravian College in Bethlehem, Penn., where they were seeded fifth in the ECAC tournament and faced the fourth-seeded Tartans in the tournament quarterfinals on Friday night.
Hopkins was looking to bounce back from last week's loss against Gettysburg in the championship game of the Centennial Conference tournament with a win against Carnegie Mellon, but the 23-8 Blue Jays faced stiff competition from the 24-10 Spartans. The Blue Jays eventually fell to CMU in four games, 30-22, 30-15, 31-33 and 30-18.
"I am sad to see the season come to an end," said senior hitter and co-captain Sam Raggi. "We accomplished a lot, including our 20-plus wins, and are grateful to our new coach, Scott Pennewill."
"We played a hard fought match and never seemed to get on track with our offense," said Pennewill, whose Jays experienced a successful season in his first year as head coach. "There were some nuisance injuries to key players, [Sam Raggi] had a low back injury and [senior middle hitter Stephanie Kaliades], a low leg injury, and we just were not firing on all six cylinders."
Sophomore outside hitter Kate O'Callaghan 16 kills and 16 digs while leading the Blue Jays attack, and was complemented by Kaliades and sophomore middle blocker Jen Hajj, who combined for 26 kills and 11 digs on the day. Junior setter Betsy Baydala once again spearheaded the offensive effort with 34 digs.
But it was Carnegie Mellon that proved to have too much offensive firepower and defensive discipline, making quick work of the Jays.
"Carnegie Mellon ran a very fast offense with some great hitting from Chrissy Bartek and Katie Fisher, who we had trouble controlling," Pennewill said. "Their defense was flawless, which caused us to get into long rallies, which in most cases we did not win."
O'Callaghan, freshman libero Lizzie Kay, Kaliades and junior hitter Skye Young each had 16, 14, 11 and 10 digs, respectively.
"Katie [O'Callaghan] and Jen Hajj had stellar performances offensively and Betsy did a great job getting the ball to the players who were playing well," said Pennewill. "Lizzie Kay did a superb job on floor defense and kept many rallies alive with her fantastic digs."
Coach Pennewill was proud of his team's performance this season and looked towards the future, stating "our season was very successful, and with a 23-9 record to end the season gives us something to look forward to next year."
"We will miss Sam and Steph a lot and will have to augment the contributions they made to the team with the returning players and new recruits we bring in," he added. "In reaching the postseason, we want to continue that trend and get better at advancing further in the Conference Championships and other postseason events i.e. NCAAs and ECACs."
