Muhlenberg opened its Centennial Conference season in mid-September with an uplifting five-set defeat of defending regular-season champion Franklin & Marshall. Nearly two months later, the Mules played another five-set match against the Diplomats, unfortunately with a different outcome.

Franklin & Marshall pulled out the fifth set, 15-12, in the CC championship match to win its sixth title. The Mules, turned away one step from their first crown for the second year in a row, ended their record-breaking season with a record of 25-8.

Muhlenberg went on an early 10-0 run behind the serving of sophomore Allison Glass and won the first set, 25-19. The Mules struggled to find their game in the next two sets, however, falling 25-15 and 25-10 to move to the brink of elimination.

With their backs against the wall, the Mules regrouped in the fourth set, scoring the first point and never trailing in a 25-20 win.

The Diplomats jumped out to a 9-5 lead in the decisive fifth set before Muhlenberg scored three straight points to cut the deficit to one. But that was as close as it would get. Down 14-10, the Mules saved two match points before an F&M kill ended the match.

Glass finished with 13 kills and 12 digs to run her season totals in those categories to 306 and 319, respectively. She is only the fifth player in program history to record 300 kills and 300 digs in one season.

Junior Katherine Boll added 10 kills and hit .385, while juniorJoanne Josephson recorded nine blocks. Sophomore Elizabeth Garrison led the defense with 22 digs.

The match was the last for the Mules' three seniors, all of whom contributed. Holly Hynson (above left) had three kills and an ace and finished her career with 546 kills, good for 16th on the all-time list. Nikki Dickson (above center) had 19 assists and 12 digs; she ended up fifth on the all-time list with 1,698 assists and fourth with 166 aces.

Julia Elkin (above right) came off the bench to spark Muhlenberg in the fourth and fifth sets with her energy and may have set the CC volleyball championship record in the high jump (right).

Muhlenberg was 72-49 over the last four years, including a 45-20 mark in the last two.