CHARLESTON, S.C. – Keyed by a double-double performance from Molly Locke (16 digs, 13 kills), Mercer earned a 25-23, 25-22, 25-18 victory over The Citadel on Friday evening at McAlister Field House.
 
The Citadel (5-10, 0-1 SoCon) was led offensively by Bailey Kernodle (10 kills), Ise d'Angelo (seven), Lauren Hurt (six) and Dominique Williams (six). Amanda Rudnik anchored the Dogs' defensive efforts with 20 digs, marking the second time this season that she has topped the 20-dig plateau.
 
Mercer, who took advantage of 49 combined kills, finished with a .244 attack percentage en route to their fourth win of the season and first in Southern Conference action. Joining Locke among the offensive leaders for the Bears were Monica Johnson (nine kills) and Caroline Carlton (eight kills). Tori Penrod led the way on defense for Mercer with a match-high 22 digs.
 
The units battled to five ties before reaching 22-all deadlock deep in the first set following a kill by Williams. Mercer grabbed a slim one-point edge on a drive by Locke that was followed by a kill off the hand of Kernodle. With Kernodle in serve, Locke drove her sixth kill of the set past The Citadel defense and after an unforced error the Bears held a 1-0 advantage.
 
The second set appeared to be much of the same, with Mercer taking an early lead only to see the Bulldogs rally to knot the game at 17-17 on a timely Kernodle strike. The Bears eventually regained control, following kills by Claire Walizcek, Carlton and Locke, to emerge with the three-point win.
 
The back-and-forth battle continued to the midway point of the third set where, with the two teams knotted at 16-all, Mercer pieced together a 6-1 run to take control of the game. The offensive outburst was highlighted by two kills each from Cara Tripp and Monica Johnson as the Bears picked up their third sweep of the season.
 
The Bulldogs return to action on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. when they host Upstate rival Wofford at McAlister Field House.