STEUBENVILLE – Franciscan volleyball played an extremely competitive four-set match against conference foe La Roche College, winning 25-20, 17-25, 25-21 and 25-21.

"Playing La Roche is always a tough match," head coach Kelly Herrmann said. "I felt like the match was a pretty well-played match by both teams. I think we got a little lucky here and there. When you play a team as fired up as La Roche, you have to match that intensity and spirit. You have to play well against them."

Freshman defensive specialist Callahan Hickey earned her first start of the year against the Lady Redhawks after some solid play last week. The freshman struggled a little early but settled down later on, finishing with two digs and one assist.

"Callahan has been a really capable defensive player in the back row and capable in serve receive," Herrmann said. "She did struggle a little early and she just needed to calm down a little bit. I really love it when players are excited to be on the court and just dying for their chance, and that's how Callahan is all the time."

La Roche came out with a little too much intensity in the first set, giving the Lady Barons some free points early thanks to hitting errors. The Lady Barons were able to take advantage of the Redhawk errors on its way to a 25-20 set win.

The second set was a little bit of a different story as the Lady Barons played from behind almost the entire set, struggling with communication on defense and letting a lot of balls drop. When the defense struggles, it's also hard to get the offense going as well, leading the Lady Redhawks to a 25-17 second set. 

"You have those little ups and downs in a match," Herrmann said. "We had seven errors in that second game and only seven kills. You're just not going to win like that. That was probably a function of weak passing and some sporadic play in the back row. That's definitely something we need to work on." 

Franciscan continued to struggle early in the third set but eventually tied the set at seven with the help of senior outside hitter Dani Link, who led the team with 11 kills and added 12 digs defensively.

The third set remained close until sophomore right side hitter Bella Wedig stepped to the service line with the Lady Barons leading 22-21. With two service aces by the sophomore, Franciscan was able to close out the third set and shift the momentum back in its favor for the fourth set.

"It's funny because she didn't jump serve all that much last year," Herrmann said. "We really didn't know she had it. She served with a lot of confidence and that was awesome. It's nice to have some different types of servers this year, have some jump servers. We have options with our serve and we can challenge teams that way."

Wedig finished with three service aces, eight digs and nine kills on the night.

With five conference matches played already, the Lady Barons will take a short two-game break from the AMCC before resuming conference play. Nonconference play in the middle of the season provides valuable learning opportunities for the team with more important conference games and the tournament looming.

"We just want to continue to work for consistency and continue to see how players perform in specific situations," Herrmann said.

The Lady Barons will host the Crusaders of Capital University in a nonconference match on October 9 at 7 p.m.