On Wednesday night, Franklin men's volleyball celebrated its lone senior, Nicolas Whitecotten, and his impact on the young Griz program.

Unfortunately for the Grizzlies, visiting Spalding decided to crash the party and exit the Spurlock Center with a 25-18, 25-19, 26-24 victory.

The first set saw Franklin (5-17) in it early before the Golden Eagles scored five of six points to take the lead for good at 12-7. The Grizzlies were unable to get any closer than four the rest of the way.

In the second, the home side tied it at 7-7 on a Jonathan McCoy kill, but Spalding countered with an 11-3 run to pull ahead by eight. Down 23-13, Franklin fought back with five points in a row — a run that included a Corbin Deck ace and kills by Demetric George and McCoy — but the comeback bid came a little too late.

That fight from the Griz, though, carried over into the third set. The Golden Eagles had leads of 17-12 and 19-15 before Franklin mounted a charge. George had a pair of kills to tighten the gap and a Spalding error leveled the score at 20-20. The Grizzlies got down 23-22 but went back on top with kills by Eric Peiffer and McCoy. Spalding, though, fought off the set point and then scored the last two points to end the match.

George led the Grizzlies with a double-double of 13 kills and 10 digs. McCoy had 10 kills, Leo Meseberg totaled four blocks and Matthew Becerra handed out 25 assists.

Franklin will be back on its home floor Friday night when it hosts Wabash in a 7 p.m. clash.