Lady Baron volleyball tried some new tactics on the road against conference opponent University of Pitt-Bradford, losing in four sets 16-25, 25-19, 18-25 and 21-25. FUS now moves to 5-2 in the conference, tied for second place with Pitt.-Bradford.

"We just played a little too sporadically," head coach Kelly Herrmann. "I thought our attitude was great. We were positive, we were talking, we were communicating the whole match. I was really pleased with that."

The Lady Barons were able to make some improvements from the first set to the second to send the match into four sets. Junior outside hitter Dani Link led the offense in the second set, finishing with 15 kills in the match.

"Dani struggled a little bit early, so we took her out," Herrmann said. "When she came back in, she really relaxed and responded really well. In order to win a conference championship, we need an outside hitter who can adjust, and she did that today."

Herrmann also adjusted some of her rotations to combat the up and down play throughout the match, bringing in sophomore outside hitter Mary Moore to calm the team down in the late sets.

"We brought Mary in because of her combination of hitting and defense," Herrmann said. "We went with her later in the match because we felt like we were scrambling a little bit, and she could help calm us down."

Herrmann used a committee of players in the outside hitting position in this match, allowing junior outside hitter/defensive specialist Christina Lawrence to hit in the front row for a few rotations.

"As a hitter, she has moments of brilliance, and she's been hitting back row well," Herrmann said. "We will give her chances to hit in the front row because she really can make things happen when she's on."

The offense also tried some double hitting and faking tactics in this match to try to increase their hitting percentages by setting up a single block situation.

"Any time you can have a hitter going up against one block or no block, you are really increasing your chances of scoring a point," Herrmann said. "That little bit of deception in getting the blockers to hesitate is really important."

The Lady Barons will continue to use some of these new tactics at home against Mount Aloysius College on October 29 at 7 pm.