Up 13-11 in the fifth set and two points away from an amazing comeback victory, Franklin women's volleyball took four big swings at what would have been its 14th point.
Instead, Alma dug up all four and managed to steal that point before finishing off a 25-16, 25-19, 16-25, 24-26, 16-14 victory over the Grizzlies Saturday afternoon in the Quaker Classic at Wilmington.
Franklin (4-2), which was without head coach
Dillon Taylor for the third straight match while also missing starters
Trinity Schroeder and
Campbell Clark, dropped the first two sets but fought back with a vengeance starting in the third. A kill by
Lauren Kinsey started a six-point burst — one highlighted by consecutive service aces from
Jayde Billings — that put the Grizzlies in command at 17-9; the Scots got as close as 20-16 before Franklin scored the last five points, two of those on
McKenzie Schroeder kills.
The fourth set saw the Grizzlies fall into an 11-7 hole before battling to tie it at 12-12. Alma regained control and had multiple chances to close it out starting at 24-19, but Franklin fought off five match points and wound up snagging seven points in a row to take the set.
McKenzie Schroeder had three kills and
Brionna Linkel two aces during that critical run.
In the fifth, Franklin scored six in a row, two of those points on
Kaitlyn Lavy aces, to go up 11-6. The Grizzlies upped the lead to 13-9 on a
Hope Moring kill, but the Scots reeled off five points in a row to tie it and then scored twice more to break a 14-14 deadlock and finish the match.
Lavy finished with 14 kills and four aces to pace the Grizzlies, who also got 12 kills from
McKenzie Schroeder, eight from
Leah Middleton and seven from Moring. Middleton had a team-high 12 digs, while Billings and Linkel had 19 and 18 assists, respectively.
Watching from a hospital room, Taylor credited assistant coach
Morgan Krause with doing a fantastic job in his stead over the weekend; he also praised the play of Middleton and
Emily Holmer, particularly in the back row.
The Grizzlies will play at IU Columbus on Tuesday evening.
