STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Lady Baron volleyball continued its strong play in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference as they beat D'Youville College in three games (25-17, 25-23, 25-15).

D'Youville, who is only 2-5 in the AMCC, presented a unique challenge for the Lady Barons because of their ability to play with nothing to lose.

"I was kind of leery going into this match," Franciscan head coach Kelly Herrmann said. "They don't have a super strong record but they are not a team that you can beat by just going through the motions. They have a lot of good players and we don't want to take anything for granted."

The Spartans proved to be a more challenging opponent than their record showed as they pushed the Lady Barons in the second game and almost stole the momentum going into the third game.

Sophomore outside hitter Dani Link was able to help bail the Lady Barons out of a possible upset by playing strong on the outside.

"When you're not 100 percent focused your passing can be a little off and that means the outside hitters need to be ready," Herrmann said. "We forced ourselves to shoot from the outside instead of giving ourselves more options. When that happens we need our hitters to carry us."

Link ended the three game match with six kills and 25 shot attempts. Defensively, she stepped in with a 14 dig contribution. As for the other Lady Barons, freshman Ana Tolkach had 10 kills while sophomore libero Sam Kelly had 23 digs and sophomore Christina Lawrence had 18.

FUS is currently second in the AMCC standings with strong playoff hopes as their regular season winds down. Going into the playoffs the Lady Barons plan on keep practices highly competitive, a strategy that has brought them a 7-2 record over the past month.

"We have been working hard in practice," Herrmann said. "We are really challenging each other, girls are constantly diving on the floor and really giving it their all. That's what we want to continue to do."

FUS will prepare for another conference opponent La Roche College at home on Oct. 30 at 7 pm. This will be their last home game of the regular season.