Volleyball drops first CC game of the season

The Hopkins women’s volleyball team has been on a roll in recent weeks. The Jays have won six out of seven games since the start of the month and showed no signs of slowing down.

After a tough 0-3 start at the Wittenberg National Tournament against top-tier national competition, the Jays had rattled off an impressive string of victories.

Their most recent streak included three straight wins, which featured two victories against Centennial Conference opponents to bring their overall record to 6-4 (2-0 in Centennial Conference play).

The Jays’s most recent victory was last Saturday against the Muhlenberg Mules in a matchup that featured two teams who were undefeated in conference play.

The Lady Jays, who hold the honor of being defending conference champions, must play this season with a target on their backs and consistently face teams who would like nothing more than to take away their chances at a consecutive championship. The Mules threw a scare into the Jays on Saturday, but ultimately lost in straight sets.

The Jays jumped on the Mules early and toward the tail end of the opening set led 21-16. However, the Mules showed resiliency and cut the lead to 22-21 at one point.

However, the Jays showed no signs of panic and finished the set on a 3-1 run to claim the first set 25-22.

Sophomore Stephanie Yokoyama, who served for three straight points in the first set, shared how her team maintainined emotional balance throughout the game.

“We’re working on adopting the mentality of treating the first point of the game the same as the last point,” Yokoyama said. “Our coach [Tim Cole] has taught us through many different exercises to keep what we call an ‘elevated neutral’ throughout the game.”

While the Mules were streaking, the Jays stayed in control and were able to get the points they needed down the stretch to win the extremely important opening set.

The Jays and Mules continued to battle throughout the second set. The closely contested second set featured nine ties, the last one occurring when both teams were locked at 19-19. Again, the Blue Jays finished strong with a 6-1 scoring advantage to win the set 25-20.

The Jays cruised into the third set 25-17 to capture their sixth win of the season. Junior Kim Bronson, who had six kills against the Mules, said she was proud of the way the team had performed as a group.

“We all did an amazing job focusing on what we have been focusing on in practice, and the results followed,” Bronson said.

This victory set up a game Tuesday night against the undefeated 20th-ranked Stevenson Mustangs. Stevenson had beaten Hopkins 3-0 earlier this season in the Greg Giovanazzi Memorial Tournament. The Blue Jays hoped to steal a victory from the favored Mustangs.

“I’m far more concerned with our approach to the match than its outcome,” Coach Tim Cole, who began coaching the Blue Jays earlier this year, said. “We’ll leave worrying about winning and losing to the fans — our energy goes into the pursuit of excellence. When we focus on the process, the results take care of themselves.”

Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, the Mustangs were too much to handle on this night. Hopkins challenged the Mustangs early on in the game but couldn’t establish a reliable rhythm and ultimately had no answer for the Stevenson attack.

The first set proved to be the closest. The Jays rallied from an early deficit to take a 13-12 lead. Bronson recorded a kill to start the comeback when the Lady Jays were down 9-12. Then, Bronson followed up by serving three straight points to give Hopkins the lead.

Both teams battled for the remainder of the set, but the Mustangs were able to pull away and ultimately win 25-19 behind senior Jessica Gieselman’s three straight assists to end the set.

Hopkins fell to an early deficit in the second set, trailing 8-0 before they scored their first point. Though the Jays strung together a few runs, they failed to stay in sync and the Mustangs ultimately took the set 25-19.

The favored Mustangs took control in the third set and powered their way to a 3-0 victory over the Blue Jays. The score of the final set was 25-17.

This brings the Jays’s record to 6-5 and keeps the undefeated Mustang season going at 18-0. There is no rest for the weary this week as the Blue Jays travel to Washington D.C. today to face Galladet followed by an important conference matchup against Swarthmore on Saturday.