Even in a season with as much monumental progress as this one, the upward trajectory isn't always linear.

Coming off of two of its most impressive performances of the season, Franklin women's volleyball was unable to keep the momentum going through Wednesday's home finale, suffering a 25-22, 22-25, 25-13, 25-16 loss to Manchester at the Spurlock Center.

"Senior night's always an emotional time," Griz coach Dillon Taylor said. "I thought that sets one and two we came out with a lot of fight, but it caught up to us a little bit. It's tough to play after upsetting the number one team (in the HCAC) at the time — and sometimes you just don't have your best, and I think today was one of those days."

The Grizzlies (15-13, 4-4 HCAC) rallied from a 19-14 in the first set to tie the score at 20-20, but the visitors were able to regain the upper hand and finish it out.

Franklin never trailed in the second, scoring seven consecutive points to take a 17-10 lead behind a pair of tandem blocks from Hope Moring and Lauren Kinsey as well as two Kinsey kills. Manchester got within three at 20-17 before kills from Moring and fellow senior Kylah Cales as well as a Kamzi Gross service ace created a little more breathing room.

That second set proved to the the high point, though, as the Spartans took an early lead in both the third and the fourth, never relinquishing the advantage in either. The Grizzlies cut into a 19-8 deficit in the fourth, with a Cales kill and a Brionna Linkel ace highlighting a 5-0 run, but the home team got no closer than six the rest of the way.

Moring finished with 14 kills, five blocks and nine digs in defeat for Franklin, while classmate Kaitlyn Lavy had eight kills; Kinsey finished with five kills and six blocks.

The Grizzlies will try to get back on track when they travel to Transylvania Saturday, with another road match in the HCAC tournament looming next week.

"We have one more in the regular season and at least one in the tournament," Taylor said. "That's the great thing about being clinched at this point. So we'll turn around tomorrow and get back in the gym and get better."