MACON, Georgia – The Samford University volleyball team suffered a 3-2 setback on the road at the hands of Mercer University on Saturday, Nov. 1, inside Hawkins Arena. SU dropped 0-2 in the match after conceding the first and second sets 22-25 and 29-31 before rebounding after the intermission to take sets three and four 25-20 and 25-8.

Samford (16-9, 10-2 SoCon) battled back and forth with Mercer (10-16, 5-7 SoCon) in the fifth set as there were six ties and three lead changes before the Bears closed out the set and the match 13-15.

The Bulldogs offense, without its leading attacker senior Michaela Reesor, came out swinging in the beginning of the first set and posted four kills on its first 10 attempts with no errors to tie the set 6-6 against the Bears.

The Samford offense cooled down shortly afterwards giving Mercer the opportunity to race out to a lead that it'd never relinquish; SU eventually dropped the set 25-22 and trail 1-0 in the match.

Junior Emily Meitz picked up the pace for the Bulldogs in the second set to record four kills and a block assist to help Samford push Mercer into extra points before eventually conceding the 29-31 decision to the Bears.

SU managed to keep the late second set momentum going after coming out of the intermission as they captured a 25-20 decision. The Bulldogs posted a .343 attack percentage thanks to Meitz and redshirt freshman T.J. Russell.

Samford continued to roll in the fourth set and dismantled the Mercer side 25-8. The Bulldogs posted an astounding .640 attack percentage and went a perfect 8 for 8 on side out attempts.

Meitz ended the match as the team's most efficient attacker with 12 kills on 19 attempts (.579) and only one attack error, with four total blocks to go along with three service aces.

Three other Bulldogs tallied double-digit kills as sophomore Erin Bognar posted a double-double of 14 kills and 11 digs; Russell tallied a team-high 16 kills and sophomore Gabbi Greenwald notched 13 kills in the match.

Senior Chelsi Carter, who usually has a spot in the lineup reserved as the team's libero, was called into action for the Bulldogs offense with Reesor out. Carter notched eight kills, 15 digs, a service ace and a block in the match while her replacement at the libero position, freshman Mikaela Milam, tallied a career-high 17 digs.

The Bulldogs return to action next week with a pair of road matches against Western Carolina University on Friday, Nov. 7, at 5 p.m. and East Tennessee State University on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 1 p.m.