PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Franciscan volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision to La Roche in its final road match of the 2018 season, Wednesday night.

The Lady Barons were once again led offensively by senior Maria Ciola (Burk, VA/Mother of Divine Grace). Ciola finished the day with 10 of the Lady Barons 17 kills while adding three digs. Freshman setter Emily Nutter (Newark, OH/Newark Catholic) dished out 16 assists and had three service aces for the match. Junior libero Lauren Betar (Altoona, PA/Bishop Guilfoyle) led the Lady Barons with 13 digs for the day.

The Redhawks jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead in the first set and were able to maintain control/ Franciscan chipped away at the lead and used a 6-1 run in the middle of the set to cut the deficit down to 21-12 behind an ace from freshman MaryKate Taylor (Cadillac, MI/Cadillac Senior) and a kill from freshman Emma Birong (Carrollton, OH/Carrollton). The Redhawks were able to close out the set with a 4-2 run to take a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-14 win.

The Lady Barons and Redhawks went point-for-point to open the second set before La Roche opened up a 24-8 lead beind a 20-4 run. Freshman Maria Bosco (Cranberry TWP, Pa./Quigley Catholic) ended the run with a kill from Nutter and served the next point to cut the lead to 24-10. The Redhawks got a kill from Ingrid Spear to close out the set 25-10 for a 2-0 lead in the match.

After the Redhawks opened up the third set with a 6-2 run, the Lady Barons chipped away and a Redhawk attack error cut the lead down to 8-5. La Roche pushed their lead to 12-5 before a kill from Bosco kicked off a 5-0 run for the Lady Barons. The run was highlighted by three-straight aces from Betar to cut the lead to 12-10. La Roche pushed its lead back to 21-14 before five-straight points from Franciscan cut the lead back down to 21-19. La Roche closed out the set with four-straight points for the 25-19 set win and 3-0 match victory.

The Lady Barons close out their season on Saturday when they host Hilbert in a 1:00 pm match. Following the match, Franciscan will honor its two graduating seniors, Maria Ciola and Theresa Moore.