WINGATE, NC - Fifth-seeded Francis Marion University, playing without all-conference hitter Jessica Lombardi, took fourth-seeded Catawba College to the brink but could not pull off the upset and fell in four sets (25-20, 27-29, 28-26, 29-27), Friday evening (Nov. 21) in the first round of the NCAA Southeast Regional Tournament in Wingate, N.C.

Francis Marion ends its season 23-9, after finishing second in both the Peach Belt Conference regular season and tournament and earning the program's third-ever NCAA national tournament bid.

Senior setter Jenna Kaiser, playing despite a back injury aggravated in last week's PBC Tournament, gritted out the match and finished with 48 assists, 17 digs, and four service aces. Freshmen Amanda Mitchell and Ashlyn Underhill filled in the hole left by Lombardi, who had surgery on a broken finger on Monday after playing in the PBC Tournament.  Mitchell finished with a career-high 18 kills and Underhill had a career-high 16 kills and 15 digs.

FMU sophomore libero Kelsie Deaton finished with a season-high 28 digs, only three shy of her career high, as FMU out-dug Catawba 109-96. Sophomore Mallory Eggert added 11 kills and four blocks to the Patriot attack.

After falling in the first set, the Patriots stormed back in the second, winning a nick-and-tuck affair by two 29-27. Catawba (21-10) had set point at 27-26, but FMU rattled off three points in a row, two of them from Underhill who had a kill and then a service ace. FMU took the set on an Indian attack error.

FMU reached triple-set point in the third as they led 24-21, but Catawba answered with four straight kills, three by Melissa Griffith, to go ahead 25-24. The Patriots tied it at 25-25 on an attack error and again at 26 on an Underhill kill, but a service error and a ball-handling error gave the Indians the two points they needed to win 28-26.

The fourth set was every bit as close as the two teams were tied at 23. FMU had a set point after an Underhill kill, but Catawba evened the match at 24 on a subsequent error. The two teams traded points with FMU fighting off two match points; the first on an Underhill kill and the second on a kill from Mitchell. However, tied at 27, Catawba ran off consecutive points on kills from Griffith and Shay Meeks to win the match.

Griffith finished with a career-high 30 kills for the Indians, hit .347 for the match, and dug up 17 balls. Melissa Powers added 20 kills, while Megan Courson had 55 assists. Catawba advances to face top-seeded Wingate University in Saturday's semifinals.

Lombardi and Kaiser are the only seniors on third-year coach Paul MacDonald's squad.  Lombardi ends her career with 1,267 career kills, 13th-best on the all-time Peach Belt list, and 990 career digs.  Kaiser ranks ninth on the PBC career list for assists with 3,972, and has also compiled 1,121 career digs.