COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College volleyball team honored Taylor McCartney and Allison Raff in a pregame ceremony – and with a spirited effort – in a 3-0 Centennial Conference sweep (25-14, 25-12, 25-7) against No. 16 Johns Hopkins on Saturday.
Raff and McCartney led the Bears (6-16, 0-7) with four kills apiece against a Blue Jays squad that came in having won 19 of its last 20 matches. Johns Hopkins (20-3, 8-0) was ultimately too much, racking up 40 kills and a .368 hitting percentage in maintaining its perfect CC mark.
After the Blue Jays' bus broke down and caused the match to start more than an hour later than the scheduled time, Ursinus went shot for shot with the Blue and White in a well-played first set that featured four ties, the last at 12-apiece. McCartney posted two kills during that opening stretch, with sophomore Miranda Foster and Raff chipping in one each.
Hopkins ran off the next four points and never trailed again, eventually closing the frame on a 9-1 run after a Raff kill cut the margin to 16-13.
The Bears were competitive in the early portion of the second and third sets before the Blue Jays imposed their will.
Simone Bliss and Louisa Kishton had 11 kills each for Hopkins, with Elizabeth Wuerstle adding 10 of her own. The Blue Jays committed only eight attack errors and had 14 aces.
McCartney paced Ursinus with eight digs, and Raff had five to move within 22 of 1,000 for her career. Foster had three kills, five digs, and two blocks.
Ursinus heads to Washington College for a CC match on Wednesday, October 25.