Hot Streak for the Volleyball Team

J. Andrew Lockwood
Senior Editor / Columnist

For the lone senior on the volleyball team Chelsea Gebben, it couldn’t be a better time to turn things around. Winning two matches going into their final home stand, her team would earn two victories to make the Atlantic Sun standings look a little closer. With a Friday night victory over Stetson (1-24, 0-18), the Bears rolled into a Saturday afternoon contest against Florida Gulf Coast with plenty of confidence. Crushing the second best team in the A-Sun in four sets, Mercer pulled off a huge upset victory in Gebben’s last home game as a Bear.

Friday night really wasn’t ever in question after Mercer won the first set 25-20. After a 25-7 shalacking of the Hatters in the second set, the Bears would cruise to an easy 25-20 win in the third and final set while head coach Noelle Rooke took the opportunity to play many of her bench players.

Three players would finish in double figures for the Bears, led by Rachel Urbelis (13 kills, 12 digs). Teammates Amiee Frutchey and Libby Hansch would pound out 12 kills and 10 kills respectively while Frutchey would tally 10 more digs for Mercer. Offensively, Rooke didn’t stray from her game plan as she would use Gebben and Nickie Halbert at the setter position equally. Gebben and Halbert would finish with 22 assists each, leading Mercer to a torching .353 hitting percentage for the game. The second set was the most impressive of the match as the Bears would make no errors, hitting an unbelievable .625 on 24 attempts.

Saturday afternoon turned into a much more thrilling contest considering the heavily favored Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (15-11, 14-5) were coming off of a five set match victory over Kennesaw State the night before. The Bears would lose a close first set 25-23, but then came roaring back to take the next three sets 25-20, 25-17, and 27-25 for the biggest win of the year.

“I’m extremely proud of the way we finished off this final home-stand of the year,” Rooke would comment after the game. She would later add, “I’m so glad that Chelsea [Gebben] got to experience this in her final home game over Florida Gulf Coast. This win was really monumental.”

It was a monumental win for the Bears indeed. The Saturday afternoon match marked Mercer’s first win over FGCU in the team’s history, snapping a three match losing streak. Amiee Frutchey would lead Mercer with 13 kills and 21 digs on another career night for the sophomore, but it was Krista Hurley’s 9 kills that seemed to come at much needed times for the Bears. The trio of juniors that includes Hurley, Hansch, and Erica Vrvilo led Mercer in a tough battle that featured several long volleys. Hansch was unstoppable at the net with one solo block and seven block assists along with 11 kills.

Ultimately, it was a team effort that finished off the powerful FGCU squad as Mercer would hit .292 on offense. Gebben would total 24 assists and 4 digs in her final home collegiate match. After the game, Gebben elaborated on her performance saying, “I’m so glad for our team right now. We really stepped up the way we played and I couldn’t think of a better way to go out as a senior.”

In the losing effort, FGCU was led by Anna Wagner’s 18 kills while Jelena Simic and Emma Racila would finish with 13 kills apiece. With the loss, FGCU will aim to salvage a first round bye in the A-Sun tournament as they must play well in the final week of regular season play.

With Mercer’s home schedule complete, the Bears wrap up with road contests against North Florida and Jacksonville to end the 2009 campaign.