The Mercer volleyball team played their final four games, walking away with two wins and two losses against UT Chattanooga, East Tennessee State, Samford and Furman.
Mercer v. Chattanooga
The Bears went head-to-head against Chattanooga Nov. 5, spending a full five sets to battle it out. Ultimately, the Chattanooga Mocs won 3-2.
The Mocs took the first set 17-25, but the Bears came back hard to win the second set 25-13. From that point on, however, the game was close with the next two sets going to Chattanooga 26-24 and Mercer 25-22 before Chattanooga managed to take the last set 19-17.
Despite the loss, Agnieska Paskevic had a career-high 57 assists during the game and 18 digs. Megan Smith led with 19 digs and Annie Karle followed Paskevic with 17 digs. Jaida Howell led the team with 17 kills, followed by Taylor Lynch at 16, Rayanne de Oliveria at 15 and Karle at 14.
Mercer v. East Tennessee State
The Bears rebounded from their loss against Chattanooga against ETSU the next day, winning 3-0 with set scores of 25-21, 25-16 and 25-23.
Howell again led the team with 13 kills while Lynch with the second most at nine. Paskevic continued to lead the team in assists with 37 while Karle led with 17 digs, followed by Smith’s 14. Oliveira contributed eight blocks to the win as well.
Mercer v. Samford
The Bears went on to compete against Samford on Nov. 10, where they played a good game but ultimately lost 0-3 with the sets coming out as 23-25, 22-25 and 21-25.
Karle made her thousandth kill in that game, reaching a career milestone. She and Howell both led with 11 kills each during the game, and Howell added four blocks. Paskevic made 30 assists along with 10 digs, while Smith led with 15 digs.
Mercer v. Furman
The Bears played their last game of the season Nov. 12, where they dominated Furman and won 3-0 with 25-15, 25-15 and 26-24.
Freshman Mykole Morgan led the team, alongside Brittany Major, with nine kills followed by de Oliveria and Howell with seven each. Howell also provided four blocks during the game. Paskevic made 33 assists, and Smith made 18 digs.
While they ended the season with a 6-5 record in away games, they continually dominated on their home ground with a 9-2 record. The Bears ended the season 16-11 overall and 12-4 in conference games.
The Bears will play in the Southern Conference Championship quarterfinals against Furman Nov. 19.
