Southern Conference Regular Season Champions

Friday, November 12

Greenville, S.C.

7:00 P.M.

Mercer University

16-11,12-4SoCon

Furman

7-18,2-13SoCon

Mercer

Furman

11/12/2021 10:42:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Mercer sweep Furman for title

By: Nicole Dennis

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer Bears defeat the Furman Paladins in straight sets to take the regular season title. The Bears complete the regular season with a 12-4 conference record.

MERCER VS. FURMAN

Set One (25-15) | While the Paladins would take a quick lead of three, the Bears answered with a run of four to take a one-point lead early in the first set, 6-5. Lexi Uhrhan recorded a service ace along with a kill by Jaida Howell and a block by Howell and Agnieska Paskevic. Several points would be traded resulting in six tie scores before kills from Mykole Morgan and Brittany Major would put the Bears up by two, 14-12. A service error would give a Paladins another point before the Bears went on a 9-0 run to take a ten-point lead, 23-13. Within this run, Uhrhan would record four service aces, three of them in a row. The Paladins would score a few additional points before errors allowed the Bears to close the set, 25-15.

Set Two (25-15) | The Paladins would be the first on the board again in a second set but a kill from Rayanne de Oliveira and the service ace from Annie Karle would put the Bears in the lead. A few points from the Paladins would allow them to regain their lead but the Bears answered immediately going on an 11-1 run. Major contributed to this nine-point lead with three kills along with kills from Morgan and Paskevic. The run would end with another service ace from Uhrhan. Points were traded for the remainder of the sets but the Bears would never lose their lead, taking the set in the same fashion as the first. Karle and de Oliveira would record two additional kills and Karle would record two blocks with Howell.

Set Three (26-24) | Morgan would be the first to record a point for the Bears with a kill followed by a block with de Oliveira. An additional block by Morgan and Howell with a kill by Howell would give the Bears a two-point lead, 5-3. The Bears would remain in the lead until the Paladins went on a 4-0 run to take a two-point lead, 9-7. A kill by Morgan followed by a block from de Oliveira and Major would tie the game at 10. An additional kill from Morgan along with an error would put the Bears back in the lead, 12-11. The teams would trade points with a 3-0 run from the Paladins giving them a two-point lead, 16-14. The Bears answered with a 4-0 run of their own including kills from de Oliveira and Karle as well as a service ace from Paskevic to take the lead again at 19-17. The Paladins would tie the game at 19 but errors would give the Bears the lead at 21-19. The Paladins worked to tie the game again at 21 with kills from Major and Morgan giving the Bears a three-point lead, 24-21. A 4-0 run from the Paladins would result in another tie at 24 before final kills from Morgan and Major would give the match to the Bears.

NOTABLES

Brittany Major and Mykole Morgan lead with nine kills each. Jaida Howell and Rayanne de Oliveira followed with seven.
Jaida Howell led with four blocks.
Megan Smith leads in digs (18), and Agnieska Paskevic in assists (33).

The Bears will compete in the Southern Conference Championship Nov. 19-21^st, official date TBD.

FOLLOW THE BEARS
For complete coverage of Mercer Volleyball, please follow the Bears on social media at @MercerBearsVB (Twitter), and @mercervolleyball (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.