Beach Bears Knock Off Southern Miss, Vanguard In California

Friday, March 7

Long Beach, Calif.

Noon

Mercer University

Southern Miss

Beach Bears Knock Off Southern Miss, Vanguard In California

3/7/2025 8:18:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

Box Score vs. Southern Miss Box Score vs. Vanguard

By: Todd Anderson, anderson_t02@mercer.edu

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Seniors Kathryn Corbett, Reese Hood and Nicole O'Mara all picked up their 50^th collegiate wins on the sand, and the Mercer beach volleyball team continued their impressive hot streak with convincing victories over both Southern Miss and Vanguard on Friday in Southern California.

The triumphs marked the sixth- and seventh-straight wins for the Bears (10-2) who used Friday's decisions to officially take over the pace for the best start to a season in the 13+-year history of the program. The early victory over Southern Miss (4-9) marked the first victory in a Sun Belt Conference opener for the Orange & Black since the 2022 campaign.

Mercer won three-straight matches to open the early matchup with the Eagles as MU's No. 3 pair of Liv Diaz and Jordan Paddock delivered the proverbial match-clincher with a 23-21, 21-17 win over USM's Y-Nhu Do and Dylan Russell. Southern Miss got on the board with a win at No.1 Pairs, but the Orange & Black closed out the league triumph with two more wins, including a three-set win by Grace Rathburn and Reese Hood on Court No. 5.

Vanguard (8-5) showed its pluck in the early goings against Mercer, but the Bears found their edge again on the way to their first sweep since an opening-weekend rout of Eckerd. Kate Hardie and Sydney Benson rebounded from an 24-22 opening-set loss on Court No. 2 to stymie Paige Cutwright and Madison Arnold with 21-17 and 15-7 victories in sets two and three, respectively.

O'Mara and Corbett delivered the most dominant win of the day – the 11^th-straight triumph for MU's No. 4 pair – with a 21-16, 21-18 sweep of Gianna Pecile and Cassie Smits VanOyen.

Mercer will get the biggest tests of its Spring Break swing through Southern California on Saturday in Long Beach. The Bears will open up Saturday play at Noon ET against 8th-ranked Long Beach State (3-3) and close it out against 2^nd-ranked Loyola Marymount (11-1) at 2 p.m.