Franklin men's volleyball didn't win either of its matches Friday afternoon at the Calvin Invitational, but it did prove to a couple of its future conference rivals that it won't go down without a fight.

The Grizzlies opened tournament play with a tough 26-24, 26-24, 25-14 defeat against the host Knights, then fought Adrian hard before falling 25-21, 25-23, 25-18.

Both Calvin and Adrian are members of the Men's Collegiate Volleyball League, which Franklin will join next spring.

"We played a tight two sets in each match," Griz coach Dillon Taylor said. "One point in any of them, and it swings in our favor."

That was especially true in the opener, where Franklin (0-5) led for most of the early going. Two kills apiece from Jonathan McCoy and Corbin Deck helped pave the way to a 14-10 lead before Calvin eventually drew even at 16-16. The Grizzlies later fought off two set points to extend the action at 24-24. Set two played out a little differently, with the Knights going up 7-2 only for Franklin to fight back and knot it at 12-12 on a McCoy service ace. The two sides swapped leads back and forth until a kill from Deck evened up the score at 24-24. As in the first set, Calvin scored the last two points to finish it. 

Franklin had a 6-5 lead in the third set, but the Knights used a big mid-set surge to take control of the affair at 19-10.

Kevin Braxton paced the Grizzlies in defeat with nine kills and Matthew Becerra handed out 17 assists.

Against Adrian, the visiting Griz fought back from a 15-10 deficit in the first set to get within a single point on four occasions, the last of those a Braxton kill that made it 21-20 before the Bulldogs secured four of the last five points to pull it out. There were 13 ties during the back-and-forth second set, perhaps the biggest coming when kills from Leo Meseberg and McCoy pulled Franklin out of a three-point hole to even it at 20-20. The Grizzlies squared up the set one last time at 23-23 but were unable to close the door.

The Bulldogs took a 5-0 lead in the third set and held it throughout.

Braxton had 10 kills and McCoy nine for the Grizzlies, while Becerra led the team with seven digs and 23 assists.

Taylor was pleased with much of what he saw from his team despite the end results.

"We are starting to clean things up at the service line," he said, "so now we are seeing other things come to light. We continue to encourage them to take risks and make mistakes. Each mistake, each error is a chance to learn and they are taking them and improving with every rally."

Franklin will have two more matches Saturday, taking on St. Norbert at 10 a.m. and Rockford at 3 p.m.