Game Notes

The Franklin & Marshall volleyball team (7-4) continues its three-game homestand this coming week as the Diplomats host local foe Lancaster Bible in non-conference action on Wednesday inside the Mayser Center at 7 p.m. before beginning Centennial Conference action against Washington College this Saturday with a 12 p.m. first serve.

Last Week

The Diplomats had just one match last week, but made the most of their opportunity with a 3-0 sweep of York (Pa.) last Friday night in front of the Mayser Center crowd. The Diplomats hit .271 as a team, led by Coco Shultz who had 12 kills and just three errors in 23 attacks (.391 hitting percentage. Gianna Mangiamele (.300) and Rei Baker (.333) also hit over .300 for the match and were second and third on the team with seven and five kills, respectively. Liah Perez registered 19 of the team's 37 assists on the night, with Meredith Mangum's 15 digs helping F&M limit the Spartans to a .084 hitting percentage. Also helping those defense efforts were eigth blocks from the Diplomats. Five different F&M players had multiple block assists on the night, led by four from Jada West and three each from Mangiamele and Lauren Arnold.

Gianna Mangiamele and Coco Shultz have already eclipsed 100 kills for the season, with 110 and 104 - respectively. Those have come in just 11 total matches for the Diplomats who have six players with at least 46 kills on the year. The next to hit the century mark looks to be Sydney Levins who has 80 kills entering this week. Liah Perez and Hannah McCarthy have been setting up the attack all year long with 242 and 162 assists, respectively. Perez is also leading the team with 18 service aces, followed closely be Melissa Benkowitz who has 17 in just nine matches.

Reigning Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Year Meredith Mangum was named the conference's defensive player of the week following her outstanding tournament in Texas. She leads the team with 186 digs and is closing in on 1,000 for her career with 843 digs entering the week. Coco Shultz needs just one dig to have 100 kills and 100 digs on the year, while Perez is just five away from hitting the century mark in digs. Jada West (2 solo, 27 assisted) and Lauren Arnold (9 solo, 19 assisted) are leading the team in blocks with their strong presence at the net.

Last Time vs. Lancaster Bible

Co-hosting its annual opening weekend tournament with Lancaster Bible last year, the Diplomats earned a 3-0 win against the Chargers in the fall of 2022. F&M controlled  that match from the start, taking a commanding 20-6 lead in the opening set. The second and third sets were much closer but also went to the Diplomats. Tied 13-13 in the second set, a block from Jada West and Makenna Penuel, followed by a Coco Shultz kill highlighted the set for the Diplomats as they never let LBC break out to multi-score advantage in the set. LBC didn't back down in the third set as the Diplomats broke out to a 14-7 lead. Kills by Penuel and Shultz forced the Chargers to take a timeout. F&M had a 20-13 lead before LBC went on a 6-2 run, cutting the score to a three-point deficit. After an F&M timeout, two kills from Amory and a Charger error won the set 25-21. Penuel tallied 14 kills on the day with nine coming against Eastern. Perez recorded 33 assists on the day, with a game-leading 17 assists against LBC.

Last Time vs. Washington College

F&M's 3-0 sweep against Washington College last season made it 18 straight sets that the Diplomats had won following their victory over the Shorewomen. That streak would grow to 20 straight game victories before being snapped during an eventual 3-1 win against Dickinson during the next match. Set scores against the Shorewomen last year were 25-19, 25-17, 25-14. Those six straight sweeps were the longest stretch since 2013 when the Diplomats won eight straight matches by a 3-0 score.

Franklin & Marshall hit .326 vs. WAC last year. Gianna Mangiamele hit .417 for the match with a team-high 10 kills against just two errors in 17 attempts. Sydney Levins swung .300 for the match with nine kills in 20 attempts. Lauren Arnold also had a very efficient afternoon with five kills in nine attempts while not committing a single error. Coco Shultz added six kills to the F&M offense. In addition to the strong swings, F&M racked up 11 service aces - featuring seven from Liah Perez in addition to her team-high 16 assists. 

Previewing Lancaster Bible

The Chargers are 7-5 on the year, but do have a 3-0 sweep to their credit against York (Pa.). LBC has played just one other Centennial Conference school this year, falling in five sets to Dickinson. The Chargers had won back-to-back matches against Clarks Summit and Hood, but took a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Lebanon Valley during its most recent outing. Chloe King (113 kills) and Jessica Fletcher (101 kills) led LBC's attacking efforts, while the setting duties are split between Tessa Kwiatkowski (191 assists) and Madeline Reed (165 assists). Five different Chargers have at least 10 service aces through the team's first 12 matches, led by Leah Helman's 24 in that category. Helman is also the team leader with 181 digs on the season. At the net, Morgan Fenstermacher has 41 blocks in just 44 sets played. That total includes seven solo efforts.

Previewing Washington College

Washington College is 4-9 on the season and will play at Widener on Thursday night before its Centennial Conference opener with the Diplomats on Saturday. Nevertheless, after starting the season 1-7, the Shorewomen are 3-2 in their last five matches - notching sweeps against St. Mary's (Md.), Notre Dame (Md.), and Trinity (D.C.) during that span. Giselle Kleinbussink and Angelina Schaber are tied at exactly 90 kills for the team lead as the Shorewomen are hitting .153 as a team. Allison McKechnie is leading WAC with 202 assists, while Raegan Moran is second on the team with 151 helpers. A strength of the Shorewomen is their serving where they average nearly three aces per set as eight different players have double digit totals in that category through the first 13 matches. Victoria Kile is the team's leading with 123 digs. Up front, WAC is averaging just 1.24 blocks per set. Chelsea Elliott heads those efforts with her 21 blocks on the season.