The season is over for Mercer’s volleyball team after they lost in the second round of the SoCon tournament to no.1 seed East Tennessee State University.

In the first round, the Bears played no. 5 seed Wofford and swept them in three sets, hardly even a contest. Brittany Major and Roberta Todd shone during that matchup with 11 and 9 kills respectively. Maddie Nunley provided an impressive 32 assists.

However, the team would then have to play ETSU, who earlier in the season beat them 1-3 sets. It was not a pretty match for Mercer who was dominated early on in the match, getting only 14 points in the first set.

Even while the game improved, ETSU proved formidable as they kept Mercer from gaining a single set, allowing them to move forward to the championship round. The Buccaneers would then fall to Samford.

Despite the loss, there is a lot of positivity that can be taken away from this year’s season.

The Bears introduced a lot of new talent this year that contributed to the team finishing with a 16-13 overall record and a 8-8 conference record. Just last year, the team went 10-21 overall and 3-13 in conference.

The team now has a lot of young talent that can help provide a solid foundation to help the team grow even more in the near future.