STEUBENVILLE – The Franciscan volleyball team opened Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference play with a pair of wins over Medaille and Hilbert in the 2016 AMCC quad match, Saturday afternoon.

Franciscan raced out to 25-15 win in the opening set of the quad match to go up 1-0 on Medaille. The Lady Barons had their best offensive set of the match in the first as they hit .280 with 11 kills.

The second set started out much closer until freshman Maddy Demos ran away with four-straight points at the service line and gave FUS a 12-6 lead. The Mavericks went on their own tear and rattled off six-straight points to take their first lead of the set, 13-12. The two teams traded the next several points until a Medaille attack error gave Franciscan the 22-20 lead. Once again with Demos at the service line, the Lady Barons scored four straight points and took the second set, 25-20.

The Mavericks came out strong in the third and took a 20-8 lead. With Mary Moore serving, the Lady Barons mounted their comeback. The senior served nine-straight points and cut the Maverick lead to 20-17 and forced the Medaille coach to call a timeout. Medaille regrouped and held the advantage for the rest of the set and forced a fourth with a 25-20 win.

"We struggled with consistency and you saw that today against Medaille," remarked head coach Kelly Herrmann. "We had some stronger game then all of the sudden we battled ourselves. If we can get that right, then we will be okay."

The two teams were evenly matched through the first 16 points on both sides of the fourth set before Medaille took a 17-16 lead, which proved to be the final lead of the day for the Mavericks. Sophomore Maria Ciola served the Lady Barons to a 21-17 lead before Medaille tied it at 23-23. An attack error from Medaille and a kill from Becca Haven gave the Lady Barons the 25-23 set win and the 3-1 match win.

"For them, it's kind of a mental battle, they tend to be demanding of themselves so they are pretty hard on themselves. That's one of the things we had to battle through the Medaille match because we were kind of fighting ourselves. Medaille played very good defense and got a lot of balls up in the air and that challenges us. If we aren't playing consistent volleyball, then in longer rallies the mistakes will hurt you."

Franciscan concluded its day with a 3-0 win over Hilbert to open conference play 2-0. The first two sets were as evenly matched as two sets could be with the Lady Barons holding the slight edge and winning 25-23 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

The third set was controlled by the Lady Barons from the opening serve. Franciscan took an 8-2 lead with sophomore Callahan Hickey serving. Hilbert came back and pulled within two, 9-7, but the Franciscan defensive and aggressive offense kept the Hawks from establishing a comeback. Demos served the Lady Baron out with a service ace and forced a Hawk attack error as Franciscan walked off the court with a 25-14 set win and a 3-0 match victory.

"In the match, Maria had 13 kills and just four errors and made progress for us. Honestly, Maddie's six errors came from her being aggressive in the back row and being too aggressive is a good problem to have. "

"I was pleased with Monica (Rigaud) and our other hitters, I really thought when we got good chances to hit, we hit well. We just have to work on our consistency."

Hickey played well in the back row with 59 digs between the two matches. "I though Callahan played well. Even the official commented on how well she was playing today."

Franciscan returns to the court when they travel to Penn State Altoona on Wednesday for a 7pm match.