MACON, GA. -  The Citadel Bulldogs dropped a five-set match up against third-ranked Mercer this Wednesday night.

How it Happened

• The Bulldogs began the match with a 25-23 victory over the Bears in the first set. Sarah Dobrich recorded her 77th block of the year to tie the match at 20 apiece before the Citadel went on a 3-0 run to close out the set. Mellanie King came up big for the Bulldogs in the first set with five kills and a block assist to go with four team blocks.
• In hte second set, the Bears got out to an early lead before the Bulldogs would tie it up on a kill from Sharlissa De Jesus. On the next point, De Jesus would tally another kill to take a 9-8 lead. She would go on to record back-to-back aces and extend the lead to four for the Citadel. The Bulldogs would then garner their biggest lead of seven after Caricia Rodriguez would pick up an ace of her own. Sarah Dobrich through two sets had her hands on four blocks for the 'Dogs. The Citadel would go on to take the second set by a final score of 25-21 over the third-ranked Bears.
• Mercer would roar back in the next three sets to take the match and improve to 8-7 in conference play. 
• Sharlissa De Jesus led the Bulldogs for the fourth consecutive game in a row in kills with 14 kills to go along with ten digs and two service aces. De Jesus now has served for 37 total aces on the year, good for second in the Southern Conference. Alicia Roberts tallied eight kills on the night while Mellanie King notched seven to go with a combined seven assisted blocks. Megan Fuhr assisted on 36 kills for the Bulldogs, her 22nd match with double-digit assists this season. Fuhr moves into tenth place in program history in career set assists with 816 through only her sophomore year and etches her name into fourth place for the single season assist record with 816 with several matches still to play. 

Kills	Sharlissa De Jesus (14), Alicia Roberts (8), Mellanie King (7)
Aces	Sharlissa De Jesus (2), Caricia Rodriguez (2)
Blocks	Sarah Dobrich (5), Mellanie King (4), Alicia Roberts (3)
Assists	Megan Fuhr (36), Caricia Rodriguez (2), Mellanie King (1)
Digs	Sharlissa De Jesus (13), Caricia Rodriguez (10), Megan Fuhr (8)

Coach Zelenock on the Loss
"It is disappointing to be up two sets on a team and end up losing in five. I think we have to continue to get mentally stronger as our volleyball seems to be okay right now. We started off well and had Mercer making mistakes and just lost our focus. We have a big task ahead of us on Friday against ETSU so we will have to refocus. "
 
Up Next
The Bulldogs will travel to ETSU on Friday, Nov. 9 to take on the Bucs at 7 p.m. For more information, visit CitadelSports.com and follow @CitadelVB on Twitter.