HAMBURG, NY- Franciscan University Volleyball defeated Hilbert College in a back and forth match, winning the second, fourth and fifth games 25-23, 25-20 and 15-13.

The Lady Barons started out without their usual focus or game day mentality. Rather than letting their emotions overtake the match they played through the challenge and pulled out a win.

Franciscan battled through the first game, looking to find the right combination and setup of players to focus their play. Hilbert played confidently in contrast to the Lady Barons, who were unable to control the ball on their side of the net. Franciscan fell to Hilbert 20-25 in the first game.

The second picked up speed and Franciscan began to create more scoring opportunities for themselves, even against Hilbert's hard hits. After the second game win, the Lady Barons were still not back on track and they fell to Hilbert again in the third game, 18-25.

The fourth game started as another challenge with Franciscan looking to find the right combination to get another win. Freshman Ana Tolkach was about to be subbed out when the entire pace of the match changed. FUS received a yellow card after subbing confusion and Tolkach, who was about to sub out, was forced to stay and move into the serving position.

"Ana was about to be subbed out but she had to serve," head coach Kelly Herrmann said. "She served six points in a row and it was just amazing. In a frustrating moment in the game, Ana was forced to stay in and serve, but it ended up being exactly the moment that we needed."

Tolkach continued to play strongly in the fourth game and picked up momentum for the team. Sophomore Dani Link also contributed to the pace change, hitting well throughout the match. Junior captain Amy O'Keefe led by example and the team was slowly able to overcome their emotional start for a successful ending to the match.

"Sam Kelly and Christina Marie were working hard to win every point," Herrmann said about the Lady Barons' defense. "Many times when our offense struggles, our defense helps us pull through. That definitely happened throughout the game. It was a great defensive effort."

The momentum from the fourth game carried into the fifth and Franciscan was able to pull through for a third and final win. Although it was not the best day of volleyball, the Lady Barons pushed through the adversity and overcame their challenges.

"This was definitely a match that some of our players struggled in but we did what we needed to do in order to win," Herrmann said. "I keep telling our team that every match is going to be a battle. We have to prepare for everything, prepare for a battle and come and play our best volleyball."

Franciscan volleyball will continue into playoffs as the number two seed. After a by, they will play the winner of the 3 vs. 6 match in the conference semi-finals on Saturday, November 9.