Box Score WESTMINSTER, Md. – McDaniel won the first two sets en route to a 3-1 win over Franklin & Marshall in the first round of the 2015 Centennial Conference (CC) volleyball tournament on Wednesday.
Teryn Rath (Grass Valley, Calif./Bear River) notched a season-best 16 kills to lead the fourth-seeded Green Terror (19-7), recording just one error in 32 swings to hit .469 in the match. With the victory, McDaniel advances to Saturday's conference semifinals and will take on top-seeded and hosts Johns Hopkins in the day's first semifinals. Match time is 1 p.m.
Ellie Ezekiel paced the fifth-seeded Diplomats (14-15) with 24 kills.
Trailing 20-14 in the fourth set, Kloe Martin (Littleton, Colo./Heritage) knocked down a kill and then took the serve. After an F&M error, Rath knocked down three of the next four kills to draw the hosts within 21-19.
A Taylor Bauman (Charlottesville, Va./Albemarle) ace keyed another five straight points that gave the Green Terror a 23-21 lead.
After an Ezekiel kill, a service error gave the Green Terror match point. The final Diplomat swing went outside the antennae to give McDaniel a 25-22 win.
Neither team opened up a lead of larger than three points in the first set until a service error and attacking error by Franklin & Marshall gave the Green Terror a 24-20 lead.
Ezekiel once again made it a three-point margin but Martin knocked down a kill to close out a 25-21 victory.
McDaniel jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the second set before a Mary Leneweaver ace keyed a Diplomat rally that closed the deficit to 9-8.
Franklin & Marshall pulled to within one three more times in the set but Martin once again closed out the set with her fourth kill of the set for a 25-20 win.
Tied at 8-all after a back-and-forth start to the third set, Ezekiel knocked down three of the next four Diplomat kills to help her team open up a 13-8 lead en route to forcing a fourth set, 25-17.
Madeline Rose (Soddy Daisy, Tenn./Baylor School) finished with 11 kills while Martin added 10. Martin also rounded out her 13th double-double of the season with 15 digs.
Bauman steadied the defense with 18 digs to go with the team's only two aces. Maddie Moyer (Brookeville, Md./Sherwood) chipped in 10 digs to go with 20 assists. Colette Kellen (Olney, Md./Covenant Life) added 24 assists to the offense.
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