WOOSTER, Ohio—Despite two 3-0 losses to Muskingum and Bluffton in the first day of the Wooster Kilt Classic, the Lady Barons played some of their best defensive volleyball of the season.

"The teams we played tonight are two pretty good teams," head coach Kelly Hermann said. "I really thought overall we played our best defense and some of our best volleyball of the season, even though we lost."

FUS fell to Muskingum in the first match 20-25, 23-25 and 19-25 as they struggled to maintain composure offensively.

Hermann said the team's hitting was too predictable, so she challenged the women to be more aggressive with their attacking game in the second match. Freshman outside hitter Ave Palguta stepped up to lead the team with five kills and only one error despite the final tally of 20-25, 20-25 and 17-25.

"Ave just does a good job when she comes in. She gets kills," Hermann said.

The Lady Baron defense also improved significantly from their first match, hitting their spots and digging out tough balls. Junior libero Samantha Kelly led the defensive effort with 35 digs on the night, while junior outside hitter Dani Link contributed 14 digs.

After the game, Herrmann said the Bluffton coach asked how she had been able to teach the Lady Barons such strong defense.

"That's a real compliment. Bluffton is a good team in a good conference and we worked really hard defensively."

Though the Lady Barons struggled at times offensively, senior setter Amy O'Keefe distinguished herself, playing every point of both matches with 9 kills and 34 assists.

Hermann said that she was excited to see O'Keefe play so well offensively and is interested to see how she will recover tomorrow after playing every single point.

"Really, it's the emotional recovery," Hermann said.  "I always felt like, as an athlete, that was a really hard thing to practice the day after a match."

She added that playing two matches less than 24 hours after their last two matches help provide the Lady Barons with the strength and stamina they will need for their conference tournament later in the season.

 "It's a good test. When you play in any tournament, you'll have to play back to back like this," Hermann said. "We need some of these opportunities during the season to practice this."

The Lady Barons will take on Wooster and Oberlin at 10:30 am and 12:30 pm on September 13 in day two of the Wooster Kilt Classic.