JHU cruises past Mules and into Centennial finals

Sara Gorelik had five aces, including three in a row in the third set as the Blue Jays rolled past Muhlenberg to advance to Sunday’s conference finals.

After losing a close first set, the top-seeded Johns Hopkins volleyball team dominated three-straight sets to advance to the Centennial Conference finals tomorrow with a 23-25, 25-12, 25-9, 25-18 victory over fourth-seeded Muhlenberg. The Blue Jays out-hit the Mules .267 to .032, out-killed them 53-29 and had nine aces on their way to the victory that put them in their seventh conference championship game.

Elizabeth Wuerstle led the Blue Jays with 12 kills while Sara Gorelik smacked a career-high five aces in the match.

JHU was out-hit .133 to .081 in the first set and was caught in a battle. JHU held the largest lead of the set at only three points when they took a 20-17 lead, but the Mules scored fought back to tie the match at 23-23. An attack error by Eric Johnson put the Mules on the line for set point and an ace by Allison Glass gave Muhlenberg the set victory.

But after that set loss, the Blue Jays out-classed the Mules in the next three sets. The Blue Jays hit over .300 in each of the next three sets while Muhlenberg failed to seven hit over .035.

JHU and Mulhenberg exchanged the first two points of the game before the Blue Jays gained a lead that they would relinquish. The Blue Jays blew the second set open with a 9-1 run to take a 14-4 lead. The Mules tried to scrap their way back into the set, but never even got close. Muhlenberg made it 16-10 with a kill by Kelly Tornetta, but the Blue Jays went on another dominant 7-1 run to take it a 23-12. Kills by Ally Hirsch and Louisa Kishton closed the set out for the Blue Jays.

But even as dominant as that set was for JHU, it was nothing compared to how much they had their way in the third set. In the third set alone, JHU out-hit the Mules .394 to -.069. Muhlenberg was held to only three kills while they committed five errors.

The Mules managed to take a 4-3 lead in the set, but the Blue Jays pulled ahead to take a 9-4 lead. JHU held a five-point lead when the score was 12-7, but that was when JHU really pulled away with an 11-1 run. Shannon Hubert ended the Blue Jays run with a kill, but kills by Hanna Korslund and Hirsch pushed the Blue Jays to the lead.

The success carried through into the fourth set for the Blue Jays. The scored was tied at 11-11, but JHU out-paced Muhlenburg to the end. A kill by Kristi Rhead and three-straight aces by Gorlik pushed the Blue Jays out to a 19-13 lead. The Blue Jays coasted to victory soon after.

Johns Hopkins will host second-seeded Swarthmore on Sunday at 1 pm in Goldfarb Gym as they seek their fourth Centennial Conference title and first since winning three-straight from 2011 to 2013.

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Corey Johns

Editor in Chief

You could say Corey was born to become a sports journalist. His father won a national championship coaching college soccer. His mother is a baseball fanatic who hasn't missed seeing an Orioles game since 1983 (literally, sometimes it's annoying). His great uncle was a big-time boxing promoter and his maternal grandfather was once a department head at the Baltimore Sun. Basically, sports and journalism run through his blood. He played just about every little league sports there was when he was a kid and was a multi-sport athlete in high school; even playing in the first-ever high school sanction Rugby game in the country. Eventually he retired from sports as an undefeated Maryland state Rugby champion as a high school senior. Perhaps lack of athletic talent has more to do with the retirement, but he will tell you that it more had to do with a great desire to jump right into media. Upon his graduation from University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a triple communications major, Corey started the So Much Sports network and has continued to grow his websites and continues to work to make them premier sports media outlets.

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