BALTIMORE – The Haverford College volleyball team fell to Swarthmore College, 3-0, in the Centennial Conference semifinals on Saturday afternoon on the campus of Johns Hopkins. The set scores for the match were 23-25, 22-25, 19-25.

Haverford was paced by Valentine Courouble, who chipped in 15 kills. Swarthmore hit .291 in the match to stymie the Fords, who had captured a five-set win over Swarthmore exactly a week prior to set up the rematch in the conference playoffs. Haverford finishes its postseason run at 17-12 (7-3 CC) while Swarthmore (23-4, 8-2 CC) advances to face host Johns Hopkins in the Championship game at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

The Fords and Garnet were essentially locked in a sixth-set continuation from the match a week ago, as the first set went much like the previous matchup between the squads. Haverford and Swarthmore traded points in the early going, with the first two-point lead coming at 11-9 to the Garnet. Haverford tied it at 11-11 with a Sara Matsumura service ace, but Swarthmore went up 16-11 after a Mehra den Braven kill and a block from Bridget Scott and Alice Liu. The Fords battled back to cut it to 17-16 but the Garnet went ahead 21-17 behind Bridget Scott and Wallace. Four consecutive Garnet errors made it 21-21 and Courouble gave the Fords an advantage at 22-21. Swarthmore tied it at 23-23 with a Malia Scott kill after a successful Courouble attack, but Courouble made an attacking error to give the Garnet set point at 24-23. The set ended 25-23 as Olivia Leventhal posted a kill

Another close battle defined the second set as the Fords took a two-point, 12-10 lead on a Courouble kill, siding out with Wallace at the service line. Haverford ran the advantage to 15-11, punctuated by a Zoe Wong service ace that gave Haverford's side some mid-match momentum and put Swarthmore on the verge of letting the set get away from them. The Garnet battled back to tie the score on three consecutive Fords errors. The two teams mostly stayed close in the latter part of the set, with Sarah Wallace delivering a kill that gave the Garnet a 23-20 to open up the first real breathing room of the late goings. A Zoe Wong kill and an attack error from Leventhal cut the lead to just one at 23-22, but a Maddie Becker service error and a subsequent servie ace from Girard handed Swarthmore the second set and a 2-0 lead.

In the third set, Haverford fell behind 10-7 after a Julia Gallagher-Teske attack error, but battled back to tie at 10-10 after three straight kills from Natalie Pisch which were set up by a succesful Hailey O'Mara service run. The teams traded points until Swarthmore took a 19-17 lead with a Mehra den Braven kill. After the stoppage from the Fords, O'Mara cut the deficit to just one at 19-18 with a kill. A service ace from Guin Mesh and a Bridget Scott kill pushed the lead for Swarthmore to 22-18, forcing another Fords timeout. Sarah Girard and Pisch traded kills before Sarah Wallace punched one down and Bridget Scott and Emma Morgan-Bennett combined on a block to end the match and send Swarthmore to the final.

Becker had 13 digs to lead all players in the match while Wong had a match-best 29 assists. Courouble added two solo blocks to pace the Fords. For Swarthmore, den Braven had 15 kills to match the output from Courouble. Wallace had 10 kills while Girard chipped in 12 digs. Elise Cummings (19) and Malia Scott (16) combined for 45 assists for the Garnet.

Haverford will now await the announcement of postseason awards in the next several weeks. Despite the loss, the Fords finished with at least 15 wins for the sixth time in the last seven seasons and returned to the postseason for the third straight campaign under first year head coach Drew Hargrave.