CRESSON, Pa. - After winning the first set rather comfortably, the Franciscan volleyball team lost on the road to Mount Aloysius in four sets 25-18, 23-25, 22-25 and 27-29.

"Every single game in the AMCC is going to be this kind of game," head coach Kelly Herrmann said. "Every single match is going to be this kind of match. It's going to be a battle every time. I feel like we worked some things out tonight."

Despite the outcome, Herrmann was not disappointed by her team's play, saying that the ladies played with a lot of emotion and truly played together like a team.

Franciscan came out with a lot of energy right from the start, led by the strong hitting of freshman outside hitter Maria Ciola who had a few key kills to close out the first set.

"Maria is just a very pure hitter and she was hitting the ball very well," Herrmann said. "They moved a bigger blocker out of her because she was crushing the small blocker and we responded kind of okay. We struggled to adjust to that situation."

The Lady Barons struggles started in the second set with a 18-11 lead when Mount Aloysius got into a groove, forcing a tie at 20 and eventually battling to take the second set.

"You certainly cannot let a team who's playing at home and fired up come back from an 18-11 deficit," Herrmann said. "We lost focus there a little bit and that was one of the keys to the match."

Another key to the match was missing offense from senior outside hitter/defensive specialist Christina Lawrence who has been one of the most consistent hitters on the team all season. Lawrence was a little overwhelmed by a bigger right side block and the Lady Barons failed to make adjustments in order to get the senior some better swings.

"We should have been moving her around, bringing her inside to hit from the seam and challenging their blockers a little bit more," Herrmann said. "We needed to challenge them more with our offense. We were being too predictable." 

Moving forward to the fourth set, Franciscan and Mount Aloysius battled for the entire set until the Lady Mounties had set point up 24-22 The Lady Barons fought off set two set points to tie the game at 24 and then began trading points, fighting off three more set points before their opponents eventually won.

"It was pretty neck and neck the whole game," Herrmann said. "We were up by a point or two early but they caught up. It was a good battle."

With the loss, Franciscan now drops to 5-3 in the conference while Mount Aloysius moves up to 5-3. The two teams are now in a three-way tie for fourth place with La Roche College with one game left remaining in the regular season. The team that finishes in fourth place would host a first-round game against the team that finished fifth.

Franciscan will travel to take on second place Penn State Behrend in the regular season finale on Saturday, October 31at 1 p.m.

"I think we have to play a lot like we played tonight," Herrmann said about what the team needs to do in order to win on Saturday. "I think we have to play together and with emotion and fired up. That's the plan."