BARBOURVILLE, Ky. - Faulkner closed out the NAIA Southeastern Challenge against a very talented Warner (Fla.) team here this afternoon. The Royals (4-2), which opened the season just outside of the Top 25 in the receiving votes pool, toppled the Lady Eagles (0-8) in four sets 25-17, 22-25, 25-18, 25-18.

Faulkner hit just .026 in the outing, but the offensive struggles were far from one-sided as the Royals hit just .082. The two teams were also dead even on team blocks with seven each while the digs were 120 to 119 in the Lady Eagles' favor. Kill total was again the determining factor with Warner outpacing Faulkner 43-36.

Overall, team statistical numbers are still nowhere near where they should be, but despite a resurgence of attack errors and floundering hitting percentage, Faulkner posted one of its best overall showings so far this season and that fight is what head coach Tori Bartels is trying to focus on right now.

"We did a lot of good things and we were really playing hard, especially late in the match," Bartels said. "No one wants to be winless, especially not when there is so much talent on the team, but we are still trying to figure out our lineup and making the adjustments. If we can have this kind of effort consistently, I'm confident we can finish strong in the win column. We just have to keep moving forward instead of taking so many steps back. We enter conference play next week and we're going to take what we've learned from these two tough tournaments and try to piece together and effective rotation."

The 0-8 recored is the program's worst since 2009.

Daijah Washington led the offense with nine kills and had 21 digs.

Alysa Klassen followed with eight kills, hitting .261, and had four digs and three block assists.

Tori Marchant added six kills and four block assists.

Bartels mixed things up on the court in the weekend's final bout leaving Krystalynn Leomiti the opportunity to help load the offense. The sophomore finished the match with 13 assists and five block assists.

Katie Musser ran the court on the flip side and had 18 assists, 11 digs and three aces.

Julianne Wilkes tallied 39 digs and Cassie Bailie matched Washington with 21 more.

Faulkner opens Southern States Athletic Conference play when it hosts Dalton State at Tine Davis Gym on Thursday. The first serve is lated for 7 p.m.