AVE MARIA, Fla. – The Royals fell just shy of a big No. 2 seed Ave Maria upset in the semifinal matchup.

Going into last night's game the Royals had already pulled the upset over No. 3 seeded College of Coastal Georgia to advance to the semifinal matchup.

The Royals and Gyrenes met up twice during regular season play and the Gyrenes took commanding 3-0, 3-1 victories over Warner.

The first set definitely set the tone for the remainder of the night as it was a bitter battle of "win by two" rallies that AMU eventually pulled out the 29-27 win.

The second set the Royals took control and routed AMU with one of their biggest set losses this season at 25-15.

The third set proved close as just a four point separation gave the Royals a 25-21 victory and put AMU on the edge of upset.

AMU said no way in the fourth set switching spots with the Royals and plundering them to the tune of 25-16.

The two squads went virtually point for point in the fifth and final set. At 7-7, AMU capitalized on a kill and two costly errors to leap ahead to a three point lead. The Royals rallied with a 4-1 run to collapse the lead and make things interesting at 13-12 in favor of AMU. AMU advanced with a kill and forcing an error to take the fifth set.

Royals head coach Chrissy Moskovits said, "Tonight was bittersweet. We obviously wanted to pull out the win but I cannot say enough good things about this team. In a year full of so many obstacles they found a way against the odds to pull together and play tough. I'm excited about the growth of our program and we have much to build on as we move forward. Kennedy Lane played amazing, she listened to the game plan and executed it flawlessly. Aurora Alderman led fantastically on the defensive side of the ball. Overall this young team has grown up so much over these 3 1/2 months. I really hope they know how proud I am of them and I couldn't have imagined doing this season with any other players!"

The TSC five set thriller unfortunately spells the end for the Royals 2020 season, but there were a few individuals that put up some worthy numbers.
Kennedy Lane stepped up and led the offensive attack finishing with 16 kills, hitting .343%, 2 blocking assists and 5 digs. Alexandra Gonzalez finished the night with 13 kills while tacking on 17 digs. Sydney Ackermann also finished the night with 13 kills. Madison Hughes added 31 assists to her season totals placing her at 265 assists on the year and 685 in her career. Aurora Alderman had another big dig night finishing with 26 digs. Alderman finished the year with 189 digs which equals out to a stellar 3.78 digs per game average.

The Royals finished their season just shy of a Cinderella run at The Sun Conference Championship with a final record of 4-10 overall and 2-9 in TSC play.