BALTIMORE, Md. – The UMass Dartmouth volleyball team shouldered a tough loss to nationally-ranked Johns Hopkins on Saturday to conclude their Maryland road trip. The Corsairs fell 27-29, 9-25, 15-25 to the fourth-ranked Blue Jays, to move to 5-2 overall on the season.
First set action saw the Corsairs open with an 8-0 run – backed by a pair of kills from sophomore opposite
Olivia Seutter and a service ace from junior setter
Skye Peters. The Blue Jays battled back, but UMass Dartmouth kept pace, building a 14-8 lead on another kill from Seutter.
Johns Hopkins responded, tying it at 16-all to set up a back-and-forth battle that continued to the very end as the teams combined for five ties. Rookie outside hitter
Ashley Serverius made it 27-26 in favor of the Corsairs, but the Blue Jays got a kill from Michela De Marzi and and a pair of attacking errors to close out the 29-27 set win.
Second set saw the host Blue Jays open a wide margin and continue to build on it as Johns Hopkins built an 11-2 lead on a kill from Alice Yu. A kill from junior captain and outside hitter
Allison Pate saw the Corsairs add a point, but a later 8-0 run pushed the home team to a 24-8 advantage.
In the third set, the visiting Corsairs worked to keep it close with a timely kill from Pate making it a 4-3 lead for the Blue Jays. The teams continued to trade points with the visitors closing the gap to two (9-6) on a kill from Serverius.
The Corsairs made it a 12-10 game on another strike from Pate, but runs of five points and four points put Johns Hopkins up by a 21-11 margin. UMass Dartmouth gained back three points on kills from rookie middle blocker and Peters, but the home team played off several Corsairs errors to close out the match.
Seutter led the way for UMD, notching nine kills with two digs. Pate added seven kills with 13 digs, an assist, a service ace and a block assist, while Serverius had five kills with a dig. Junior captain and defensive specialist
Emily Pogorelec recorded 17 digs with four assists and an ace, while Peters had a kill, 13 assists, an ace and nine digs.
UMass Dartmouth returns to action on Tuesday, hosting WPI at the Tripp Athletic Center at 6:00pm.
