FRANKLIN, Ind. – The Franklin College volleyball team closed out their final weekend tournament of the season on Saturday afternoon, taking on Baldwin Wallace and Bethany (W.V.) to close out their home invitational.

The Grizzlies (8-8) battled hard against two of the tournament's top teams before succumbing to Baldwin Wallace (14-3) in four sets and Bethany (6-6) in five sets. 

Match One: Baldwin Wallace 3 – Franklin 1 (25-23, 25-21, 23-25, 25-12)
The first three games all were decided by extremely thin margins. The Yellow Jackets were able to hold on and take the first two games and looked to have a stranglehold on the third set after jumping out to a 9-4 lead.

But the Grizzlies would battle back with a 9-2 run to take the lead and they capitalized on two Yellow Jacket attacking errors late to force the match to a fourth set. Baldwin Wallace stuffed any momentum early in the fourth set, rushing out a 9-1 lead on their way to a win.

Miranda Wilson led Franklin with 14 kills and a .263 hitting percentage. Allison Thompson's 24 digs were tops on the team and Billie Jarrett had 11 digs to go with 30 assists in her 10^th double-double of the season.

Match Two: Bethany 3 – Franklin 2 (27-25, 16-25, 25-19, 21-25, 15-11)
Franklin fought back valiantly after falling behind 11-1 in the first set, but the Bison took the final three points to take a one-game lead. The hosts responded with a dominant second set in which they led by as many as 10 points before closing things out with a Sara Allen kill.

The Bison re-claimed the lead with a win in the third set and had the Grizzlies on the ropes up 18-13 in game four. However, the hosts once again dug in and closed out the set with 12 of the final 15 points, forcing six Bethany errors during the run.

Franklin took an early 4-2 lead in the final set before six straight Bethany points swung momentum the other way. A late Franklin run to keep things alive fell just short.

Wilson had another strong showing on the attack, matching a career-high with 24 kills while hitting .388. Allen (13) and Chloe Holder (11) both reached double figures in kills with Jarrett dishing out 50 assists.

Up Next
The Grizzlies close out non-conference play this coming Wednesday (Sept. 29) night when they host the Colonels of Centre College. First serve from the Spurlock Center is set for 7:00 p.m.