Prior to heading north on Tuesday to face St. Mary's, Franklin coach Dillon Taylor felt good about his team's chances, provided it could limit the errors that had plagued it in three losses last weekend.

Alas, it didn't quite come together for the Grizzlies, who concluded a nine-match road swing with a frustrating 27-25, 21-25, 25-21, 26-24 loss to the Belles.

The Grizzlies fell to 5-7 on the season, having dropped seven of their last eight matches.

The first set was a microcosm of Franklin's existence of late, as the team hammered down an impressive 18 kills but still came up short. A Lauren Kinsey kill put the Grizzlies up 15-14 before the host side scored the next four points; the visitors battled back to tie the match four times, the last on a McKenzie Schroeder kill that made it 25-25, but couldn't close it out.

Franklin came back and set the tone in the second set, taking a 9-2 lead and maintaining an advantage of at least three points the rest of the way. Hope Moring, who had an outstanding all-around match with 17 kills, 20 assists, eight digs and three service aces, finished off the set with a kill.

Finishing proved to be a problem over the next two sets, though. In the third, the Grizzlies led on multiple occasions and drew even at 17-17 on a Kaitlyn Lavy kill, but the Belles answered with six consecutive points to seize momentum. Then, in the fourth, Franklin stormed back from a 22-14 deficit to tie it at 24-24 on a Lavy kill, but St. Mary's snuffed out the Griz comeback bid by taking the next two points.

Lavy had 13 kills and Schroeder added 10 for the Grizzlies, who got 24 assists and four aces from Brionna Linkel and 17 digs from Campbell Clark.

Done with its road trip, Taylor's crew returns to the Spurlock Center this weekend with five matches at the Franklin College Invitational, starting with a match against Kuyper College at 4 p.m. Friday.