ALTOONA, Pa. – The Franciscan volleyball team suffered its first conference loss of the season as the Lady Barons fell to Penn State Altoona, 3-2, Wednesday night.

In a back and forth affair, the Lady Barons won the second and fourth set, 25-18, 25-17, but dropped the first, third and fifth, 25-19, 25-17, 15-11.

"We definitely battled tonight and played a very strong second and fourth set," commented head coach Kelly Herrmann following the match. "We were just too inconsistent. We did have some really bright moments and served really tough at times, we just have to find our consistency."

After falling just short of a comeback in the first set, the Lady Barons came out swinging hard in the second and quickly built a 9-4 lead. Franciscan was able to maintain at least a three-point lead throughout the set and led by as many as eight points at 21-13. Freshman Roz Pridemore continued to swing well for FUS and finished off the second set with a pair of kills to even the match at 1-1. The Lady Barons had their best hitting percentage of the match in the second with 12 kills and a .344 hitting percentage.

The Lady Lions came back in the third set and battled to take a 2-1 lead for the match, though the Lady Barons continued to play aggressively and finished the set with 12 kills and 43 attacks, their highest number of attacks for the match.

"There are things that everyone needs to work on and we are going to keep learning from each match," continued coach Herrmann. "It is this kind of mental battle that we have to keep working through. We have to learn to control our emotions and be aggressive and not let things out of our control trip us up."

Franciscan played through that mental battle and had a strong fourth set to tie the match and force a fifth set. The Lady Barons came out strong like they did in the second set and once again built a 9-4 cushion. Franciscan used a 10-2 run to extend its lead to 19-6 and eventually 21-7 after a kill from freshman Maddie Raffa. The Lady Lions mounted a comeback however and used a 6-2 run to cut the Lady Baron lead to 23-16. After Franciscan earned a set point off a PSA attack error and the Lady Barons finished off the set with another Altona attack error to tie the match at 2-2.

Franciscan and the Lady Lions were locked in a tight back and forth battle in the fifth set until PSA took an 8-5 lead and forced the court switch. The Lady Lions maintained at least a three-point lead until FUS scored four-straight points and cut the lead to 13-11. After a Franciscan service error, Penn State Altoona closed out the match with a kill to win 3-2.

Sophomore Maria Ciola led the Lady Barons with 12 kills while Pridemore had eight and hit a team-best .375 for the match. Sophomore Callahan Hickey posted 19 digs. The Lady Barons benefited from strong all-around play from both of their setters as sophomore Becca Haven had nine kills and 18 assists and senior Rachel Potopa had 17 assists and 10 digs.

"We just have to keep learning from each match and everyone has to keep working. We have Pitt.-Bradford in a key AMCC match on Saturday and just have to take it one match at a time.

The Lady Barons travel to Pitt.-Bradford on Saturday for a tri-match with Houghton and the Bobcats beginning at 3pm.