Men’s Soccer
The Men’s Soccer team is still struggling to rack up wins as they continue into the season. At the moment, the team’s overall record is 1-3-2, having gotten their first win of the season against the Washington Huskies, Sept. 10.
By no means does this indicate the team cannot make a recovery as their season continues. Their last five games have all went into overtime, meaning these matches have all been closely competitive events with setbacks in the last minutes of each game being the deciding factor.
As far as the program goes, this latest set of games is the record for most consecutive overtime runs.
Will Bagrou was the determining goal against Washington, scoring his fourth goal of the season just 52 seconds into overtime.
The men’s team’s match against Presbyterian has been postponed due to weather conditions to an undecided date. The team will play again Sept. 23 against Georgia Southern in Statesboro.
Women’s Soccer
The women’s team has been faring slightly better than their male counterparts. The team’s record as of now is 4-4. One player of note is goalkeeper Jordyn Ebert who managed to make eight saves in the team’s game against Georgia State, Sept. 8.
In the Bears’ match against Alabama A&M, Sept. 10, they managed to allow the Lady Bulldogs to only get off 7 shots in total and only 3 shots on goal. Mercer in comparison managed to get a season high 34 shots with 19 shots on goal.
Head coach Tony Economopoulos said he gives credit to Alabama A&M for managing to make the competition competitive for his team, who despite outshooting the opponents by a factor of five, still had a challenge getting past the Bulldogs’ defenders.
“They scored an early goal on us when we had a mental lapse, but for the most part we controlled possession of the match. We had 34 shots in the match. We challenged them at halftime to be more efficient in front of the goal and make better decisions in the final third. Obviously we were able to do that by scoring three goals,” Economopoulos said.
If the team manages to keep a defensive edge like the one in their match against Alabama A&M in the future, they will be a worrisome force for SoCon rivals.
Men’s Tennis
Mercer tennis recently represented at the Southern Intercollegiate Tournament at the University of Georgia, with duo Ruben Vanopen and Nicolas Guillon taking home the doubles championship.
The two players went against pairs from Georgia State in both the semi-finals and the championship in order to win the tournament.
Head coach Eric Hayes said “it was a heck of an effort” from the two.
“This is one of the toughest and oldest tournaments in the country,” he said. “Georgia State is a top 40 team in the nation and defending Sun Belt Champs. For us to beat them twice in one day was a strong effort and I am very proud of our guys.”
Women’s Tennis
The Women’s tennis team will be travelling to Columbia, South Carolina to play in the South Carolina Fall Invitational Sept. 15-17.
Volleyball
Mercer Volleyball’s record comes to 4-4 after a 1-2 performance in the Ole Miss Classic, Sept. 7-8.
Despite the team not being able to take the Ole Miss Classic, there were some highlights. Paige Alsten was named SoCon Offensive player of the week due to her performance in the tourney.
Alsten made 50 kills over the weekend to bring her season total to 122. Alsten leads the league in hitting percentage (.414) and also leads the league with 40 blocks.
The final game against the hosting school was hard fought. Mercer and Ole Miss traded sets until the fifth where Ole Miss overtook the Bears 15-11 points.
The Bears will be travelling next to Charleston to play in the Charleston Invitational, Sept. 15.
