STEUBENVILLE – The Franciscan volleyball team started to pick up momentum as the match went on, but suffered a hard-fought 3-0 loss to Geneva, Saturday afternoon.

Geneva won in three by set scores of 25-10, 25-15, 25-21.

The Golden Tornadoes took a quick 10-2 lead in the opening set and never looked back. The Lady Barons were able to string together a pair of points off back to back kills from sophomore Maria Ciola and Annie Nehrbas but Geneva finished out the set on a 3-1 run to win 25-10. 

Franciscan seemed to settle in the second set and play aggressive volleyball. The Lady Barons used a 5-1 run kicked off by a kill from freshman Roz Pridemore to take an 8-4 lead. The Golden Tornadoes used their own run to tie the game at 9-9 and eventually lead12-9. A pair of service aces from Rachel Potopa re-tied the game at 12-12. Geneva kicked off a 7-2 run to take control of the set and eventually used a 5-0 run at the end to win 25-15 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.

The Lady Barons  started off the third set very strong, taking a commanding 15-6 lead. The Golden Tornadoes chipped away at the FUS lead and eventually tied the set at 19-19. After Geneva took the lead, 21-19, the Lady Barons used a service error and a Geneva attack error to tie the set at 21-21. Three straight Lady Baron attack errors closed out the match and the Golden Tornadoes won the set 25-21 and match, 3-0.

Freshman Maddie Raffa, Nehrbas and Ciola all had four kills for the Lady Barons while senior Mary Moore posted 12 digs.

"For us, we have to be getting better. We missed an opportunity but we know we aren't there yet. We feel good about the fact that we played Bradford and Altoona and lost both to in five at a time when we know we weren't playing our best volleyball," remarked head coach Kelly Herrmann. "So we just have to take it one match at a time and we got to 'repent and forgive' about some of the things we did on the court today and we have to play good consistent volleyball in our conference matches left." 

"I absolutely believe that we have the talent that we need to compete for the conference championship, but we have to play calm, confident volleyball to get there. 

The Lady Barons return to AMCC action on Wednesday when they host Mount Aloysius at 7pm.