STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – In the two teams' first meeting since the dramatic 2014 AMCC championship match, Franciscan volleyball dominated Penn State Altoona at home in straight sets 25-21, 25-10 and 25-21.

"Some days you just play well and some days you don't," head coach Kelly Herrmann said. "Fortunately, today was a good day for us. Altoona's a good team. They are certainly going to come back and win a lot of matches. We'll probably see them again."

Last year, the Lady Lions were up 2-0 in the championship match before Franciscan made an exciting five-set comeback to win its first conference championship in program history.

This year, both teams were also picked to finish at the top of the conference in the Preseason Poll, making this matchup even more anticipated than it already was.

The Lady Barons came out with a bang, winning the first eight points of the first set, forcing Altoona into the defensive where they ended up playing from all night long. 

"Right away we were able to put pressure on them," Herrmann said. "The key in the match is to set that pace early, to come out and be strong and aggressive early, then you're on top. Then you have the mental edge a little bit. Sometimes when you get down, it becomes tougher to get the momentum and get back in the rhythm of your offense and defense."

Senior outside hitters Dani Link and Christina Lawrence led the offense right from the beginning, taking a lot of smart swings and hitting the ball hard. Each senior finished with 12 kills and a high hitting percentage with Link hitting .321 and Lawrence hitting .344. 

"The outside position is such an important position," Herrmann said. "If you have a bad pass, the ball is automatically going to the outside, so it's important to hit at a high percentage from the outside. For Dani and Christina to hit like that, I couldn't be happier with their performances."

The two seniors continued their strong performances in the second set, leading the Lady Barons to a final set score of 25-10.

"When you play that high of percentage of volleyball where you are hitting really well, setting really well, passing really well and you are playing with so few errors, you are putting a lot of pressure on the other team," Herrmann said. "Altoona is a good team. They're not going to lose very many games 25-10. It happens, we all have our good days and our bad days. "

Altoona was not going down without a fight and played more competitively in the final set, even taking a lead at 16-15. However, the Lady Barons were able to swing momentum back in their favor thanks to two consecutive kills from Lawrence.

Senior leadership was definitely a strong point in the match as libero Samantha Kelly also turned in a strong defensive performance with 20 digs. 

"Sam played fabulously," Herrmann said. "Tonight, I didn't see as many spectacular Sam plays as we do sometimes but that's because she reads so well. When they hit, she's just waiting for the ball most of the time. She doesn't make very many mistakes with her reads. I can never say enough about Sam's performance."

With perhaps the toughest conference match out of the way, the Lady Barons can now look toward the next match and the rest of the season in the team's quest for a second conference championship.

The next match will take place in Buffalo, New York, as the Lady Barons travel to take on conference opponent Medaille College on October 2 at 7 p.m.

"One thing we are stressing to the girls is we have to focus on one match at a time," Herrmann said. "I felt like the girls were certainly very focused in this match but now we can't think about it too much. We just have to think about Medaille now and play with the same focus and in the same way."