MACON, Ga. - The Chattanooga Mocs (5-18, 3-5 SoCon) volleyball team was unable to come back at Mercer (8-15, 1-5 A-Sun) after dropping the first two sets in a 3-1 (25-19, 25-16, 20-25, 25-22) loss on Tuesday night at the University Center. Sophomore outside Jennifer Kuroski (Acworth, Ga.) paced the offense with a match-high 12 kills, while junior libero Paula Passmore (Merritt Island, Fla.) tallied 31 digs.

"I thought that was have grown into a more complete team, but we came out flat and did not play with confidence," said head coach Travis Filar. "It showed tonight because we were not in the first two sets. We were down 16-9 in the third set before we showed some of the urgency we played with on our homestand, which was being aggressive and fighting for every point. In the end, we were unable to make enough plays in the fourth set."

Generating 11 kills was junior middle blocker Christina Teter (Signal Mountain, Tenn.).  One positive from the match could be taken from the six kills by junior outside Meagan Ernd (Munster, Ind.)

"Meagan was the one hitter that did not make an error," said Filar. "She played well and kept the ball on the court. She ended up playing all-the-way around for us and made some nice defensive plays in the back row."

Another complete effort on the court was provided by junior outside Heather Parman (Ooltewah, Tenn.) with seven kills and 12 digs. Running the offense was sophomore setter Bridget Camacho (Cumming, Ga.) with 37 assists and eight digs.

Also contributing on the defensive effort was Ernd with nine and sophomore Andrea Johnson (Soddy Daisey, Tenn.) with eight.

The Mocs did register seven blocks during the contest led by freshman middle blocker Kasey Talley (Boiling Springs, S.C.) with four, while Teter added three including one solo.

"Overall, our defense was not up to where it needed to be," said Filar. "We have to understand that in every match we play that we must go for every ball, cover out hitters [from being blocked] and react to plays when they occur. These are all small things, but they were the difference tonight."

Mercer was led by Carolina Carlton with 13 kills along with Ana Coursey with 12 kills. Totaling 56 assists in the match was the duo of Monica Sanchez and Madeline Dolny. The Bears defense was paced by Charlotte Harris and Jaime Duffy with 24 and 23 digs, respectively.

Falling behind early in the first set was Chattanooga, 13-9, but a timeout changed the momentum in favor of the Mocs. The squad rallied to six-straight points to take a 15-13 lead on kills by Parman and Camacho (2) and a service ace from Johnson.

The Bears would go on, however, to close out the frame 25-19. Chattanooga posted 14 kills, but was unable to overcome six mistakes.

"We had too many unforced hitting errors," said Filar. "Mercer has a lot of smart hitters that don't hit hard, but what they do is not commit errors. They kept points alive by making smart plays. At times we did not give ourselves the chance to win a point, because we ended up making an error to end a play."

Mercer cruised to a 25-16 victory in set two, but the Mocs did comeback scoring six of the final eight points heading into the intermission.

Building another early lead was Mercer, who began set three with a 16-9 lead. Following a timeout by coach Filar, Chattanooga came all the way back aided by strong serving from Johnson and Ernd to notch a 25-20 win. The 16-4 run included three kills from Teter, while Kuroski and Parman tallied one each. The Mocs were able to capitalize on a number of mistakes made by their opponent.

During the fourth set, both teams battled point-for-point for the first 29 games, but Mercer used a 6-1 run to take a decisive 21-16 advantage. Chattanooga would get within two at 23-21 on a kill by Talley, but the Bears would close out the match with a 25-22 win.

"I was hoping to bring a little more momentum from this match into two big matches this weekend," said Filar. There are no easy matches in the Southern Conference. If you don't come prepared to fight for every point, then you are going to lose because our conference is solid from top to bottom."

Chattanooga returns to Southern Conference action on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Davidson before heading to Georgia Southern. The Mocs battle the Eagles on Sunday with the first serve slated for 2 p.m. Live stats and an audio broadcast for both matches can be found on the volleyball schedule page of GoMocs.com.