Playing only their second match at home, the Lady Barons Volleyball team fell to the Washington & Jefferson Presidents 3-0 (16-25, 20-25, 21-25). The Lady Barons are in the middle of a challenging week to prepare themselves for conference play on Sept 28 against Penn. State Berhrend.

FUS, after previously losing to the Presidents during the LaRoche Volleyball Invitational, were over matched again. The Lady Barons scored the first point in all three games and kept the score close in the beginning but were outplayed little by little until the match was out of reach. Even so, Head Coach Kelly Herrmann says that this team is a strong squad and can make waves in their Allegheny Mountain Conference.

"I really believe that this is a stronger team than last years," Herrmann said in reference to her 2012 squad that went to the semifinals in last year's AMCC playoffs. "Obviously when you have seniors like Anna Cain from last year your team is going to be strong, but this team is so deep. It's not just a freshman and sophomore team. These girls are incredibly mature for their age."

Herrmann intentionally scheduled difficult opponents such as the Presidents in hopes of getting her team used to a fast style of play when the start to play AMCC rivals next week.

"Volleyball can either be a fast game or a slow game," Herrmann said. "We start conference play and we don't want to be slow. Most of our freshman didn't play a fast enough style in high school. That's the big catch up for them. You hope you play tough enough teams early so when you get into conference play the game feels comfortably paced or maybe even a little slow."

Franciscan looked comfortable doing what it has been doing best for a few years, defense. Herrmann has instilled a strong defensive mentality into her teams over the years and this young squad is no exception.

"As the game went on the blocks by Washington and Jefferson were becoming less effective," Herrmann said. "That only means that we were playing stronger to the net and not letting anything hit the floor on our side."

All Conference Libro Sam Kelly set the example for Franciscan with 19 digs while Junior Amy O'Keefe had 17 digs and sophomore Christina Lawrence collected 13 of her own.

"Our lineup really maximizes our defensive ability," Herrmann said. "We are going to continue to work on our hitting percentage and lower our errors as the season progresses."

The season will progress quickly for the Lady Barons who will only have one night to get over this loss before they host a morning match against Grove City College on Sept 21.