STEUBENVILLE – The Franciscan volleyball dropped a hard-fought non-conference match to visiting Bethany (WV), 3-0, Monday night.

The Lady Barons fell to the Bison by set scores of 25-12, 25-22, 25-18. Leading Franciscan's offense was senior Maria Ciola (Burk, VA/Mother of Divine Grace) with eight kills as she hit .316 for the day and picked up five digs. Sophomore libero Lauren Betar (Altoona, PA/Bishop Guilfoyle) added 18 digs for the Lady Barons while freshman setter Emily Nutter (Newark, OH/Newark Catholic) dished out 14 assists. Junior Sarah Murgia (Perkasie, PA/Lansdale Catholic) came in and played two sets and picked up three service aces and a pair of digs.

"I am really just proud of Sarah Murgia today," remarked head coach Kelly Herrmann. "She hasn't been playing as much lately but she got her chance today and she made the most of it. I told her 'I want you to go out there and be aggressive with your serve and play food defense' and she did. She knew who to go after with the serve and did a great job of being aggressive. She served six or seven straight points in the second set that got us right back in there. I am just so proud of her 'I am going to fight for my time on the court' attitude."

Trailing 24-15, Murgia subbed in to serve and rattled off seven-straight points to cut the Bethany lead to 24-22 but the Bison got a kill from Rachel Gantzer to halt Murgia's serving and give the visitors a 2-0 lead in the match. Murgia's serving was highlighted by a pair of aces and an excellent block by freshman Maria Bosco (Cranberry Twp., PA / Quigley Catholic) and Ciola.

The Lady Barons came out and played aggressive volleyball to begin the third set and tied it at 3-3. After Bethany pulled away with an 8-3 lead, the Lady Barons pulled it back to within two points, 11-9, thanks to a Bethany service error. The two teams traded the next four points before Bethany used three-straight points to take a 16-10 lead. Ciola put a stop to any type of run from the Bison with a kill but Bethany once again had an answer and eventually took a 20-15 lead. Franciscan kept battling back, but Bethany used a 5-3 run at the end of the set to close out the match.

"We played too young tonight and had moments of getting freaked out but I am really proud of how the girls battled back after a difficult first set," remarked Coach Herrmann. "We did a lot of things well in the second and third games and we are just getting better and working really hard. The girls have a great positive, forward-thinking attitude as a team and that will help make good things happen.

"We have a conference match on Wednesday and I told the girls that there are teams we need to beat and there are the teams that we need to at least split with and if we do that we can make the conference tournament and play our best volleyball."

The Lady Barons will host Pitt.-Greensburg on Wednesday in an important AMCC showdown at 7:00 pm on Kuzma Court.