STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - Lady Baron volleyball dropped their home opener against Wooster College in three close games (21-25, 22-25, 21-25). Franciscan overcame large early leads to keep all three games close but couldn't close out the older, more experienced Fighting Scotts roster.

Coming out of last weekend's tournament, head coach Kelly Herrmann said she had her girls focus on a slower but well executed offense in order to keep errors to a minimum but said they still suffered from some mental mistakes.

"We had too many errors," Herrmann said. "It wasn't nerves as much as it was being a little too excited. Hopefully we got a little bit of that out of our system."

Franciscan's offensive errors put them in a hole early, falling 17-6 in the first game. FUS battled back, however, to tie the game but didn't have enough energy to complete the comeback and take the lead, eventually losing 21-15.

"In the first game we started a little tentative and as the match went on we shot the ball harder," Herrmann said. "That is something you don't typically find in a young team, the ability to battle back from a large deficit."

The theme of falling behind and battling back only to fall just short was a pattern that played out in all three games.

Individually, the Lady Barons showed impressive performances in front of the home crowd. Freshman outside hitter Jennifer Pagano subbed in for junior Jackie Zucco and scored a number of timely points against a defense that focused on playing closer to the net to avoid spikes and tips.

"Jen played extremely well," Herrmann said. "Their defense left the back corner exposed and Jen really picked apart their sideline and made them pay."

Additionally, sophomore Dani Link had 23 digs against the Fighting Scots and also scored a team high 10 kills in their three games.

"Dani really got going as the match went on," Herrmann said. "She is really getting comfortable with the outside after moving in from the middle position."

The Lady Barons are eager to iron out their kinks and continue their season against Oberlin College at the La Roche College Volleyball Invitational on Sept 6 at 5:30 pm.