MACON, Ga. --- The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team fell in a heartbreaker, 3-2 (25-22, 25-22, 19-25, 19-25, 15-13), at Mercer on Friday evening inside Hawkins Arena.
 
Following the loss, Chattanooga falls to 13-14 overall and 6-7 in the Southern Conference. Mercer improves to 9-17, 3-10 in conference play this season.
 
Mikaela Gauthreaux set a new career-high with 14 kills at a .333 hitting percentage while registering a career-high two service aces and adding 3.0 total blocks. Miranda Elpers finished with a team-high 20 kills at a .278 hitting percentage.
 
Dani Szczepanski posted 14 kills at a .258 percentage with 11 of the kills coming in the second and third sets. Madison Bergren dished out a season-high 41 assists in addition to 3.0 blocks.
 
Elpers paced the team with 22 digs to complete the double-double while Bergren and Megan Kaufman registered 11 and Lindsey Farrell had ten.
 
Chattanooga heads to Birmingham, Ala., tomorrow for a 6 p.m. ET match at Samford. The match will be streamed live, courtesy of the Southern Conference Digital Network, and the link can be found on GoMocs.com.
 
Mercer 3, Chattanooga 2
1^st Set | MER 25, UTC 22
The Mocs jumped out early on the Bears and built a 5-2 lead before exchanging points to eventually hold an 11-8 lead. Mercer would answer with four-straight to take a 12-11 lead ahead of both teams going back-and-forth all the way to a 21-21 tie. The Bears would close out the set with four kills, in comparison to one for the Mocs, to claim at 25-22 set win and take a 1-0 lead.
 
2^nd Set | MER 25, UTC 22
Both teams traded points to begin the set before Mercer claimed a slight 11-9 lead over Chattanooga. UTC would tie things up 15-15 and would remain steady until a 6-3 run following a 19-19 lock gave the Bears a 25-22 set win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
3^rd Set | UTC 25, MER 19
With their backs against the wall in a must win set, the Mocs jumped out to an early 6-2 lead before Mercer responded with a 6-2 run of their own to tie things up at 8-8. Both teams once again went point-for-point, this time all the way to a 15-15 tie, before UTC gained a little separation at 17-15 to force the Bears into a timeout. Chattanooga didn't let up and closed the set on an 8-4 run, claiming a 25-19 win and forcing a fourth set. After trailing 15-14, Dani Szczepanski accounted for seven points, six kills and 1.0 blocks, in the Mocs final 11 points scored.
 
4^th Set | UTC 25, MER 19
Mercer pulled out to an early two-point lead at 6-4 before Chattanooga answered with five-straight points to take a 9-6 edge. The Bears tied things up 11-11 after a 5-2 spurt. From that point, the Mocs scored another five-straight and seven of nine points to build an 18-13 advantage. UTC finished the set by out-scoring Mercer 7-6 down the stretch to earn a 25-19 set win and force a decisive fifth set.
 
5^th Set | MER 15, UTC 13
It was all Mercer in the first half of the set as the Bears took a 5-2 lead before extending it to 8-4 at the set switch. After two-straight UTC points cut it to 8-6, Mercer responded with two-straight of their own to put their lead at 10-6. Chattanooga clapped back with three-straight to cut the deficit to one at 10-9 and force Mercer into a timeout. The home team was just a little too much down the stretch and took five of the final nine points to win 16-14 in the set and 3-2 in the match.