ERIE, Pa. (October 22, 2016) – The Edinboro University volleyball team suffered just its second conference loss of the season on Saturday afternoon, falling to crosstown rival Mercyhurst in a hotly contested five set affair by scores of 21-25, 25-22, 25-22, 24-26 and 8-15. With the loss, the Fighting Scots are now 17-6 overall and own a 9-2 PSAC mark while the Lakers improved to 12-10 overall and 4-7 in conference play.
 
Saturday's contest was the second straight five set match for the Fighting Scots and their third in the last five games. Edinboro owns a 4-2 record in five set matches this season.
 
The two teams traded the first two sets with Mercyhurst taking the opening set before the Fighting Scots evened the score at 1-1. Edinboro took the third set despite trailing 19-16 at one point. Unfortunately, the Lakers would take the next two sets to close out the Scots.
 
Victoria Severo tied a season-high with 18 kills to lead an Edinboro attack that featured three players with double-digit kills. Challen Litwiler totaled 17 kills and Latoya Hutchinson added 12. Sydney Trathen dished out 47 assists to go along with her six kills.
 
Freshman Jordan Van Oss led the Fighting Scots defensively with 18 digs. Taylor Palowski added 15 digs while Litwiler contributed 13. Trathen also finished in double-figures with 10 digs. Severo totaled three block assists.
 
The Lakers were led offensively by Shelby Chesko with 18 kills. Sarah Wegrzyn and Lauren Kenny finished with 13 and 11 kills, respectively. Mercyhurst displayed a strong defense at the front of the net, recording two block solos and 16 block assists for a total of 10 blocks. Haley Adams led the way with two block solos and four block assists.  
 
The Fighting Scots return to action next weekend, traveling east for a pair of conference games. On Friday, October 28, Edinboro takes on Cheyney and on Saturday, October 29 the Fighting Scots square off with West Chester. Following that, Edinboro returns home for a five-game homestand to conclude the regular season.