BRADFORD, Pa. – The Franciscan volleyball team dropped an Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference match to Pitt.-Bradford, 3-0, Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Barons dropped the AMCC match to the Panthers by set scores of 25-16, 25-11, 25-13.

Leading the Lady Baron offense was once again senior captain Maria Ciola (Burk, VA/Mother of Divine Grace). The outside hitter finished the day with 11 kills, 10 digs, and a pair of block assists while hitting .240 for the day.

"We are going to work on a few things to get Maria playing all the way around again," remarked head coach Kelly Herrmann. "Getting her more involved in the backrow will get her more chances to hit and more connections with Emily (Nutter).

Nutter finished the day with 15 assists while freshman Marykate Taylor had 10 digs for the Lady Barons.

"We lost Lauren Betar early in the first set and Clare Stabile stepped in for her," continued Coach Herrmann. "Clare did a good job coming in but when you are playing a team like Bradford, you need your best defenders on the court. They have a very good setter that sets a low, quick outside set from anywhere on the court. That kind of consistency helps really good hitters and that combination is just potent. We struggled to close our block today.

"We have a week until our next match and we will do some things to change our defense. We have to play more consistent volleyball to give ourselves a chance against teams like [Bradford]."

Freshman Maria Bosco had a pair of kills and led the team with three block assists.

Franciscan has the next week off before hosting Mount Aloysius in an AMCC contest on October 10 at 7:00 pm.