Mercer Suffers 3-0 Setback in Denver

Saturday, September 4

Denver, Colo.

8:00 PM (ET)

Mercer University

3-3,0-0SoCon

Denver

5-1,0-0Summit League

Mercer

Denver

9/4/2021 10:24:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Bears fall to Denver in Straight Sets

By: Nicole Dennis

DENVER, Colo. – The Mercer Bears fell to Denver, 3-0 in the final match of the Denver Invitational.

Head Coach Dex Schroeder said, "This weekend was setup to challenge us and it did, very much. We try to be a very role defined team, and with a few players out, it necessitated expanding some players' roles. In the end we couldn't find a win that we wanted, but we definitely were challenged out of our comfort zones. We hope to see growth from there."

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Set One (25-13) | A kill from Megan Smith would get the Bears on the board. Back-to back kills from Brittany Major would keep with Bears within six, 16-10. The next three points from the Bears was a kill from Rayanne de Oliveira and errors. The Pioneers would go on a 7-0 run to end the set.

Set Two (25-18) | The Bears trailed early in the second set. The first kill of the set would be from de Oliveira, making the score 11-4. The Bears went on a 4-0 run started with a service ace from de Oliveira and followed with kills from Taylor Lynch (2) and Annie Karle. The run kept the Bears within seven. Later in the set, back-to-back kills from Lynch would keep the deficit at six, 21-15. The teams traded points with errors and kills before two final kills would give the second set to the Pioneers.

Set Three (25-15) | The beginning of the third set was a battle with six total tie scores. Kills from Karle and Lynch tied the game at two. The teams would trade several errors before a kill from Paige Wagers tied the game again at seven. The last tie would be at eight before the Pioneers went on a 7-0 run, 15-8. Another 5-0 run from the Pioneers would put them up by 10, 20-10. Three of Mercer's last five points would be kills from Lynch and de Oliveira (2). The Pioneers would answer offensively, closing the set with kills and ending the match.

NOTABLES

Lynch led the Bears with seven kills, followed by de Oliveira with 6.
Agnieska Paskevic led with nine digs, followed by Smith and Lynch (6).
Major and de Oliveira tied with 3 block assists each, Wagers registered 2.

The Bears will travel to the Elon Tournament next weekend for matches against North Carolina A&T (12:00 p.m.) and Elon (6:00 p.m.) on Saturday, September 11^th.

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.