PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Franciscan volleyball forced a fourth set but ultimately fell to Chatham, 3-1, Thursday evening.

After dropping the first two sets, 25-22, 25-13, the Lady Barons used the strong serving of  Mary Moore to roll out to a 7-0 lead to open the third set. The Cougars rattled off four points to cut the lead to 7-4 but Franciscan seemed to have the answer for the Cougars in the third and kept Chatham at bay. Franciscan took its largest lead of the game at that point with a kill from sophomore Maria Ciola to give FUS an 18-10 lead. Franciscan closed out the set with a 7-3 run, capped by a pair of service aces from senior Rachel Potopa, to force a fourth set with a 25-13 win.

"I am really proud of how the team played in the third," remarked head coach Kelly Herrmann. They came out aggressive and served really well. In fact, Mary Moore really served well for us the entire match and played well."

The Cougars came out strong in the fourth and used four kills from Justyne Lasher to build a 6-0 lead. The Lady Barons kept fighting and battled back to tie the set at 13-13. The two teams traded points back and forth until the score was tied 22-22. The Cougars scored the set's final three points to walk away with a 25-22 win and a 3-1 match win.

"It's hard to come back from a 2-0 (set) deficit. I am proud of the girls for not giving up and continue to battle but we just couldn't do it tonight. Chatham is a very good team. They are much better than years past and really did things well today."

"We were missing some important players, especially on defense tonight and I think that really hurt us."

Leading the offense for the Lady Barons was Ciola with 12 kills while Monica Rigaud hit .436 with 10 kills on the night. Moore handed out 17 assists and had three service aces. Sophomore Callahan Hickey led Franciscan with seven digs.

"Monica (Rigaud) played very well tonight and Mary and Rachel did a nice job setting. It was good to be able to work on a few things (with our setters) and using them in different ways tonight as we get ready for conference play."

The Lady Barons open conference play on Saturday as they host the 2016 quad match. Franciscan will face Medaille (1pm) and Hilbert (3:30pm) on Court A while Pitt.-Greensburg takes on Hilbert (1pm) and Medaille (3:30pm) on Court B.