Johns Hopkins Volleyball Season Review

The Blue Jays Finish the season with a 16-10 Record

Printer-Friendly Format

E-mail this article

The Blue Jays began and ended their season in the same fashion, with three straight wins.

Women's Volleyball Home

HEADLINES

Johns Hopkins Volleyball Season Review

Zenoff Receives All-Centennial Honors

Cappelaere Earns Academic All-District 2 Honors

• Email this to a friend

Dec. 2, 2009

Volleyball Season Review in PDF Format

The Blue Jays entered the 2009 season picked to finish third in the Centennial Conference preseason vote by the conference's head coaches. Head Coach Greg Giovanazzi was coming into his second season at Johns Hopkins and he had 12 returning players.

The Blue Jays started the season strong going 3-0 at the Blue Jay Invitational Tournament. They defeated Desales (3-0), Goucher (3-1), and Edgewood (3-1) to take the tournament championship. Junior KC Stingl recorded nine kills in the opening game against Desales, which would be her season-high. Senior Allison Cappelaere had back-to-back 15 kill games in the wins over Goucher and Edgewood. Cappelaere was named the tournament MVP while senior Alex Zenoff was named to the All-Tournament Team.

The following weekend Hopkins traveled to Wellesley, MA for the Wellesley College Tournament. The Blue Jays lost a heartbreaker to Amherst (3-2) in the first match. The match went the full five sets with Amherst squeaking out a 20-18 win in the fifth set. Stingl tied her season-high of nine kills and set her season high of 20 digs in the match. The Blue Jays then defeated host Wellesley (3-2) in come-from-behind fashion as they lost the first two sets but rallied to win the final three. Senior Rhea Alexander had a season-high four aces and Cappelaere had a season-high 17 digs. Zenoff also recorded six blocks in the match.

In the final match of the Wellesley College Tournament, Hopkins defeated Wesleyan (3-1). Junior Brittany Zimmer had 10 kills and 18 assists, both of which are season-highs. Freshman Becky Paynter also had two season-highs in the match with five aces and 22 digs.

Hopkins defeated Hood (3-1) in its first single match of the season. Stingl recorded four aces in the match and Junior Taryn Segal had a season-high 8 digs. Paynter had 40 assists, the first of three matches in which she would record 40 or more assists. The Blue Jays then traveled to New York for the SUNY New Paltz Tournament from September 18-19.

Hopkins lost the first game to SUNY New Paltz (3-1). Cappelaere recorded a season-high 18 kills in the match while sophomore Sarah Feicht set her season-high at 12 kills. The Blue Jays would not lose another set in the tournament as they rolled through New Jersey City, Rutgers-Newark, and Mount St. Mary, all in three straight sets. The Blue Jays had their season high hitting percentages against New Jersey City and Rutgers-Newark, hitting .376 and .368, repectively. Freshman Kate Flewelling had a season-best 11 kills against New Jersey City and freshman Carolyn Mickelson served a season-high 3 aces against Rutgers-Newark. Cappelaere and Paynter were named to the All-Tournament Team.

The Blue Jays would win their next match over Stevenson (3-0) before heading to the Salisbury Invitational Tournament. Hopkins would lose its first two matches to Virginia Wesleyan (3-0) and Salisbury (3-1), before finishing the tournament strong with a (3-0) win over Goucher. Zenoff was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Hopkins opened their Centennial Conference schedule at home on September 30 against Dickinson. The Blue Jays won the first set, 25-5, but the rest of the sets would be decided by three or fewer points. Hopkins would win the next set, 25-22, but Dickinson would rally to win the final three sets and the match. Zenoff had 11 kills in the match and Paynter had 35 helpers. Cappelaere had 14 digs to lead the team on defense.

On October 3 the Blue Jays lost to two ranked opponents. They lost to conference foe #22 Haverford (3-0) and #23 Eastern (3-0).

Hopkins would break the three-game losing skid when it traveled to Washington College and defeated the Shorewomen (3-0). The Blue Jays had a team hitting percentage of .306 on the day.

At Swarthmore on October 8 the Blue Jays would rally from down two-games-to-none to win for the second time this season. Zenoff had 24 kills and seven blocks in the match, both were personal and team season-highs. Cappelaere hit her season-high 18 kills in the match while Paynter set her season-best 46 assists. Sophomore Melissa Cole had her season-bests of 13 digs and five blocks. Junior Alica Diehl had a season-high 15 digs.

The momentum from the win would not last, however, as the Blue Jays would fall in their next three matches. Hopkins fell to Gettysburg (3-1) in the first of these three losses.

The Blue Jays would then lose two consecutive matches, to Franklin & Marshall and Muhlenberg, in which they won the first two sets. Against Franklin & Marshall, three different Blue Jays set season-high dig marks. Alexander had 15 and both senior Katie Buckheit and freshman Amelia Thomas had 23 digs.

The Muhlenberg match was the Blue Jays' Dig For a Cure match. The Blue Jays recorded 76 digs and earned $795 for the cause. Senior Kristen Kozielski had a season-best 15 digs and Thomas had a season-high 8 kills.

The Blue Jays' last three matches were must-win in order to keep their playoff hopes alive. They started off with a strong three-sets-to-none win over Bryn Mawr on Senior Day. Bryn Mawr scored less than 20 points in each of the three sets.

On October 28, Hopkins hosted McDaniel in what would prove to be an exciting match. They split the first two matches before the Blue Jays would take the third set, 34-32. Hopkins fought off nine game points and would only hold one lead in the set until they scored their 33rd and 34rd points. The Blue Jays also needed three extra points to win the fourth set, 28-26. Cole set her season-high kill total at 11 and Feicht tied her season-high with 12 kills.

The Blue Jays traveled to Ursinus for their last game of the season on October 31. Hopkins rolled through Ursinus in three straight sets (25-18, 26-24, 25-18). The Blue Jays fell one game short of the Centennial Conference Tournament with Muhlenberg upsetting Gettysburg to obtain the fifth and final playoff spot.

Several Blue Jays earned accolades for their work on and off the court. Cappelaere was named to the CoSIDA ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District 2 Second Team. Cappelaere is the first Blue Jay to receive Academic All-District honors three times in her career. Zenoff was named to the All-Centennial Honorable Mention Team.