Steubenville, OH - The D'Youville women's volleyball team avenged their regular season finale loss to Franciscan on Saturday by defeating the Barons 3-2 in the first round of the AMCC playoffs on Wednesday evening.

D'Youville jumped out to an early lead over Franciscan in the first set with an 8-2 lead. The Barons would come back to close the gap at 12-8, but the Spartans would bring their lead back to six at 16-10. Franciscan would then score 10 of the next 12 points to take the lead at 20-18. They would continue their first set comeback and win the first set 25-22.

The Spartans rebounded in the second set and again got out to an early lead at 10-3. Franciscan closed the gap to one by trailing 12-11 until D'Youville went on a major scoring run. The women scored 13 of the next 14 points and ran away with the second set, winning 25-12.

In the third set, Franciscan this time took control of the game early with a 7-5 lead. The Spartans tied up the game at 9-9 before the Barons went on a run, taking a 20-10 lead. They would then close out the third set by winning by the score of 25-13.

Determined to not let their season end, D'Youville came out to an 8-4 advantage. Franciscan then came back to take the 12-11 lead but the Spartans rallied right back and went up 20-12. However the Barons would put up a fight with 10 of 11 points to retake the lead 22-21. But the Spartans would get the lead back in the next two points and win the set 25-23, forcing a fifth set.

The final set of the match had the Barons take a 4-0 lead right away. The Spartans came back and eventually tied the game at 7-7 and the set was tied again at 9-9. However from that point on, D'Youville took control. They scored six points out of the final seven to win the set 15-10 and the match 3-2, advancing to the AMCC semi-finals on Saturday.

The women had an all-around team effort in the upset victory over Franciscan. Abby Booth (Hamburg, NY/Frontier) had an outstanding game with another double-double, leading the team with 27 assists and recording 13 digs. She also added four kills and two service ace. 

Kendyll Smith (Petrolia, PA/Karns City) led the team with 12 kills while Kaylee Stewart (Wilson, NY/Wilson) added nine. Also tallying nine kills was Megan Schneider (Lockport, NY/Lockport) to go with her 16 digs, second on the team.

Freshman Jasmine Filkov (North Collins, NY/North Collins) recorded a team high 19 digs in the match. Julie Fleming (Tonawanda, NY/Mt. St. Mary's Academy) added six kills while Megan McCarthy (Eden, NY/Eden) led the team with four service aces. 

Alexandra Bubar (Wilson, NY/Wilson) had four digs with Savannah Brayton (Queensburg, NY/Queensbury) recording five. McKenna Cartonia (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) had nine assists and eight digs in the match.

D'Youville advances to play the #1 Pitt.-Bradford Panthers on Saturday, November 5th at 2pm.