FLORENCE, S.C. – Despite a combined 35 kills from juniors Rebecca Morgan and Tiara Anderson, the UNCP women's volleyball squad was derailed in their quest for their 20th win of the season Wednesday by the Francis Marion Patriots by a 3-2 score. Game scores for the match were 18-25, 25-23, 18-25, 25-14 and 10-15.

A tough front-line defensive effort by the Patriots (15-13, 4-8 PBC) fueled their conference victory, and forced the Lady Braves (19-11, 5-7 PBC) to commit 26 attack errors on the evening. UNCP was out-blocked for only the sixth time this season and led to their .169 attack percentage on the night, compared to a .280 clip by FMU.

Morgan led the Lady Braves in kills for the tenth match this season, including the last three, with a season and UNCP career-high 20 in the loss. Morgan moved closer to the 300-kill plateau with the effort and now has 268 kills on the season, and just missed her eighth double-double of the season by finishing with nine digs, tying her for the third-highest total on the squad. Anderson moved closer to the 250-kill plateau with 15 on Wednesday night, leaving her with 230 on the year.

Sophomore Shay Peterson registered 10 kills during the match and led the defensive front with three block assists.

Heather Bolwerk registered 44 assists for UNCP while also adding six digs and two aces on the night. Freshman Marissa Baker led the Lady Braves' back row with 27 digs while fellow rookie Jennifer Grunden added 12 to the UNCP stat line.

The Lady Braves will close out their regular season this weekend with matchups against conference-leading Flagler on Friday and Armstrong Atlantic on Saturday.