BALTIMORE, Md. – The No. 20 ranked Ithaca College volleyball team saw its season come to a heartbreaking end on Saturday evening falling in straight sets to No. 3 Johns Hopkins (20-25, 23-25, 22-25) in the Baltimore regional pod championship match. The Bombers held leads within each set, but just couldn't get over the hump to earn a set win as they conclude their season in the Sweet 16 for the second-straight year.
 
Johns Hopkins scored the opening three points on a pair of kills from Simirin Carlsen and Jilienne Widener as Ithaca got on the board with a successful swing from Faith Sabatier. Anaya Prince would connect on two-straight for the Bombers that was followed by a Peyton Miller service ace that tied it at 4-4. Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu gave Ithaca its first lead of the set at 7-6 with a service ace as the teams then traded points until tying again at 10 all after a kill from Naomi Clauhs.
 
Ella Graper served up another Bomber ace and Anya Prince and Faith Sabatier came up with a combined block that had Ithaca up 14-11. The Blue Jays countered with 11-3 run that gave them a 22-17 advantage as Ithaca halted the spurt with an Ella Graper kill. Johns Hopkins would eventually take its first timeout with a slight 23-20 lead and would close out the set with an Alice Yu kill (25-20).
 
Ithaca opened up the second set with Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu and Anaya Prince scoring on a kill and block, respectively. Johns Hopkins would fight back and build a three-point advantage at 7-4, but Ithaca fought back scoring three-straight including a kill and block up the middle from Ella Graper. The Bombers continued to rally with two huge kills from Naomi Clauhs that were both assisted by Wesley Slavin. Clauhs got Ithaca the first to 10 points with another good swing and a Slavin ace had the visitors up 11-9.
 
The Bombers maintained their lead and were up 15-12 with another great swing from Faith Sabatier. The Jays again when on another prolonged 7-4 run and forced the Bombers into a timeout with the score knotted at 19-19. They traded points down the stretch and again Hopkins earned the set point with a kill, this time from Brooklyn Pater that won them the set at 25-23.
 
Trailing 2-0, the Bombers again opened the set with a 2-1 lead and stretched it to 7-4 with an Anaya Prince block solo. Coach Tara Stilwell was forced into a timeout when JHU scored four in a row to cut the Ithaca lead to just one (11-10). The teams would then trade the lead back and forth before the Jays built a three-point advantage with an Alice Yu kill. The Bombers continued to fight cutting it to one at 21-20 with a Naomi Clauhs kill. Johns Hopkins closed on a 5-2 run to close out the set and match.
 

 
As a team, the Bombers connected on 40 kills while swing .195% as they were led by Naomi Clauhs who finished with 12. Ellie Benedict led the defensive efforts finishing with a team-high 19 digs.
 
For the second-straight season and third in five years, Ithaca College bow out of the NCAA Tournament in the round of 16, finishing with a 24-7 overall record that included the third-straight season of undefeated Liberty League conference play and their third-straight Liberty League title.