STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Franciscan volleyball made some improvements against second-time opponent Baldwin Wallace but ultimately fell in straight sets – 17-25, 17-25 and 24-26 – in the team's home opener.

The two teams played three days ago in the Marcia French Memorial Invitational with Baldwin Wallace coming away victorious in that matchup. This time around, however, both teams played much better volleyball even though end result was similar.

"Baldwin Wallace is a good team," head coach Kelly Herrmann said. "They have tremendous young talent so obviously it would take a really good match to beat them. I like the fact that we got stronger as the match went on."

Emotions were running high with excitement over the home opener and that showed on the Lady Barons side of the court early in the match. The team let the nerves get to them and committed a lot of hitting errors in the first set, hitting for a total of zero percent.

"We started a little tight and we were struggling a little bit," Herrmann said. "We had a lot of hitting errors early just from being tight and we kept talking to the girls about being relaxed and just playing."

The Lady Barons really started to settle into the match during the second set, improving the team's hitting percentage and making some outstanding defensive plays to win some particularly long rallies. 

"I think most of the long points in the match we won, which is awesome," Herrmann said. "We had a couple of points we had no business winning and we had to rescue ourselves from poor offense and play good defense to get control of the point again. Those kinds of things are really good to see and so I think those moments give you more confidence as the match went on."

Senior outside hitter and team captain Dani Link was the most confident player on the floor throughout the entire match even though Baldwin Wallace was really attacking her on defense and in serve receive. Link took that challenge personally and upped her game offensively, leading the team with 12 kills.

"Dani hit extremely well," Herrmann said. "She put the ball where it needed to be, just really leading our offense confidently. She's that kind of player. If she's playing well, she's unstoppable."

Consistency was a big factor in a tight third set with both teams trading points back and forth for a majority of the set. Franciscan was really able to come together as a team to encourage each other to get through some long points late in the set.

"In volleyball, you have to be very consistent," Herrmann said. "If you're not, it doesn't matter how good you can hit one ball at one moment if the next ball is going in the net. I think the consistency was the most encouraging thing and that's going to come just as we play more together."

The Lady Barons will look to keep up the team consistency as they travel to take on Muskingum on September 16 at 7 pm.