CHATTANOOGA – The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team suffered just its second home defeat of the season after falling in straight sets 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-19) to Mercer in Southern Conference action inside Maclellan Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.
Following the loss, Chattanooga falls to 13-14 overall and 7-5 inside league play while dropping to 8-2 this season at home. Mercer improved its overall mark to 8-16 and conference record to 4-8.
Mercer controlled the match from start to finish as the three sets featured just four lead changes while seeing 11 ties. The Bears came out of the gate with a convincing 25-16 win in the first set where the offense attacked at a .593% clip. The visitors would put away the match with 25-17 and 25-19 set wins in the second and third.
"That was extremely frustrating to play so well against Samford and so poorly today against Mercer," said head coach Julie Torbett. "We need to put back-to-back matches together and not take teams lightly.
"It was a collective poor showing without many bright spots. We will get back to work this week."
Chattanooga was out-attacked by a wide .307% to .131% margin and trailed in kills (40-27), digs (33-29) and blocks (10.0-5.0). Halle Olson led the offense with eight kills at a .217% percentage while Natalie Tyson finished with just six kills at a -.042% percentage, the lowest output of the season.
Chloe Bryan chipped in with five kills up the middle and also recorded a block assist. Olson finished with two block assists while Sydney Hall registered another multi-block assist match with two.
Sophia Bossong and Elaine Redman directed the offense with 11 and 10 assists each, respectively, while the duo combined for three kills. Paige Gallentine paced the defense with a team-high nine digs while Tyson followed with five.
UP NEXT
Chattanooga continues play inside Maclellan Gymnasium next weekend when it plays host to UNCG on Friday and Western Carolina on Saturday. Match coverage links will be made available on the schedule page leading up to first serve.
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