STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – While keeping three of the four games close, the Franciscan University of Steubenville women's volleyball team fell to their seventh straight non-conference opponent on Monday, losing to Washington & Jefferson University, 3-1 (22-25, 15-25, 25-23, 22-25.)

The Lady Barons jumped out to a big lead in the first game, leading by as many as six points. Some errors and lack of focus let that lead slip away, ultimately losing the first game, 25-22.

"We were rolling right along there in the first game at 18-12, and then mentally let the game get away from us," FUS head coach Kelly Herrmann said. "That first game was really the key to the match."

After struggling to find a level of cohesiveness in the second game, Franciscan fought back and won a crucial third game by a score of 25-22.

The Lady Barons had the fourth game tied at 22 and were in position to retake a lead, but they were unable to come up with digs on some critical kills and did not win a point for the remainder of the match.

"In the fourth game I felt like we were doing a lot of things well and playing with them, but volleyball is a game of errors," Herrmann said.

 The Lady Barons committed 27 errors in the match.

A trio of freshman led the way offensively for the Lady Barons, Dani Link and Maria Prezzia both recorded eight kills, while Christina Lawrence registered six.

As it has been all season, the highlight of the match for the Lady Barons was the performance of their young defense. The freshman duo of Lawrence and Sam Kelly combined for 67 of the team's 105 digs. Sophomore Amy O'Keefe and Prezzia helped out the defense with 12 and 10 digs, respectively.

"Our defense is our strength," Herrmann said, "and we rely a lot on our freshman. Christina and Sam handled the defense really well today. Our struggle is to manage our emotions and our errors and to be able to have that kind of composure."

Herrmann also added that she schedules a difficult non-conference slate of games purposefully to prepare her team for the challenges of conference play and specifically the conference tournament.

"Washington and Jefferson is as good as any team in our conference," Herrmann said. "I feel like we are playing well right now, especially with a big win against [the University of Pittsburgh at] Bradford on Saturday. We're gaining momentum and gaining confidence. We just have a couple things to iron out here and there but I think we are in a good place."

The loss moves the Lady Barons to a record of 7-11 overall on the season and does not affect their Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference record of 2-2. They are back in action tomorrow, Oct. 2, at Carlow University at 7 p.m.