MACON, GA. – Sophomore Ali Morris matched her career-high with 20 kills and junior Sarah Janourova dished out a career-best tying 43 assists as Western Carolina volleyball outlasted Mercer in five sets on Thursday night to snap the Bears' six-match win streak at Hawkins Arena. WCU won the match by the scores of 23-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-18, 15-12. 

Morris added 19 digs on the defensive end to accompany her 20 kills for her 10th double-double of the season. She also added a career-high seven assists and picked up a pair of aces in the win. Morris posted a .383 hitting percentage on Thursday with the 20 kills coming on 47 swings, with only a pair of attack errors. 

Senior Livi Weidmann tallied her sixth double-figure kill performance of the season with 15 kills as she added four digs and three blocks. Bailey Hartsough filled the stat sheet with her ninth double-double, totaling 14 kills and 15 digs while adding four assists, a couple of service aces, and a pair of blocks. Janourova posted her third 40+ assist performance of the conference season as the Prague, Czech Republic native had 43 helpers and 20 digs. She also tied a career-high with four aces and added three blocks.

As a team, WCU hit .242 for the match including a .387 clip in the fourth and .304 in the fifth set. It marks their third-best hitting percentage as a team in a match this season, as the only ones to top it were .300 vs. UNCG and .289 vs UNC Asheville. WCU also tied a season-high with 57 assists, led by Janourova's 43. 

The Bears were led by Kylee Quigley who had a team-high 20 kills while totaling 11 digs and a pair of blocks. Aliyah Waldon had 12 kills, eight digs, and six blocks to fill the stat sheet. Mykole Morgan totaled 11 kills and four blocks. Kiera McCarles finished with a match-high 51 assists and 10 digs in the double-double effort. On the defensive end, Aria had tallied a team-high 20 digs as Waldon and Skyler Bumpers led Mercer with six blocks apiece. 

Thursday's win is the Catamounts third victory in five sets this season, with their first two coming against Green Bay (Sept. 2) & ETSU (Sept. 21). WCU improves to 7-1 on the season when earning the victory in set two this year. It's also the seventh time this season that WCU has had at least three players record a double-double in the same match. 

The opening set featured five early ties before Mercer (12-10, 8-3 SoCon) went on a 7-3 run to claim a 13-9 advantage and force a WCU timeout. The Catamounts answered with a 7-4 burst that cut the deficit to one, 17-16. Mercer quickly stretched the lead to four before a 7-3 run from WCU evened the score at 23 in the closing moments of the set. Mercer, however, picked up back-to-back kills to claim the tight first set 25-23. 

Western Carolina (7-15, 4-8 SoCon) raced out of the gates in the second set with a 5-1 burst to gain the early lead. Mercer answered with four of the following six points before WCU pushed across a 6-2 spurt to stretch the lead to 13-7, forcing a Bears timeout. After the stoppage, the Catamounts increased the lead to eight, 17-9, before the hosts rattled off an 8-2 run to cut the WCU lead to two, 19-17, which led to a Catamounts timeout. Mercer continued to battle back with a 7-4 run to take a 24-23 lead before three unanswered from WCU allowed the Catamounts to even the match at a set apiece. 

WCU opened the third set similar to set two with a 7-1 burst out of the gates to force a Bears timeout. Mercer responded with an 8-3 run to cut the WCU lead to one and force the Catamounts to use a timeout. The two teams traded back-to-back points out of the timeout before the Bears went on a 10-4 run to take a 20-15 lead, forcing the second WCU timeout. The Bears increased the lead to seven, 23-16, before a 6-1 spurt from WCU cut the deficit 24-22. A Mercer kill allowed the hosts to claim the set and gain a 2-1 lead. 

The fourth set began with a tight battle as the two teams were tied four times in the early going before a 5-1 Catamount run allowed WCU to take a 13-10 lead, which forced a Bears timeout. The two teams traded bursts before WCU pushed in front 19-14. Western Carolina scored six of the final 10 points to claim a set win by the score of 25-18 to force a decisive fifth set. 

WCU pushed ahead 5-3 in the opening stages of the fifth set before a 4-1 burst from the Bears gave Mercer a 7-6 edge. The Catamounts climbed on top on the heels of a 5-2 spurt to take an 11-9 lead before the Bears quickly tied the score at 11. Western Carolina had the final push of the night to claim the match, scoring four of the final five points to down the hosts 15-12 and claim the five-set winner.   

The Catamounts return home for a 7 p.m. start on Saturday against league-leading The Citadel from Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center. The match with the Bulldogs will be preceded by Catamount football squaring off against Mercer on Homecoming weekend with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. Saturday evening's match will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with live stats on CatamountSports.com.

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