Senior Jocelyn Waldern played a near flawless match to lead the Georgia State volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-20) win over former Atlantic Sun Conference rival Mercer on Tuesday night at the University Center. Waldern, the Panthers lone senior, finished just shy of a triple-double in the three-set win.
The Panthers, playing their final non-conference match of the season, improved to 16-7 overall. The loss dropped the Bears to 6-16. Georgia State improved to 31-4 in the all-time series and revenged last season's tough 3-2 loss in Atlanta.
The win also guaranteed the Panthers a winning record for the second time in three years. State has also tied the most wins in a season under head coach Mike Webster, with a minimum of seven matches remaining.
Waldern finished the match with 11 kills, nine digs and a career-high seven total blocks, while hitting at a .300 clip.
Junior Ashley Jones and sophomore Chelsea Perry each contributed double-doubles in the win.
Jones, who is tied for the CAA lead with five triple-doubles, scored a team-high 13 kills, while adding 11 digs, six assists and four total blocks.
The Panthers finished the match out-blocking Mercer, 12.0 to 8.0.
Perry, who stands first in the CAA in service aces per set, scored 28 assists and 12 digs in the win.
Redshirt-junior Audrey Cantrell moved into sixth on the Panther all-time digs list after scoring 18 in the match. Cantrell moved ahead of Beth Van Fleet (1995-98) and now has 1,031 in her career. The Rockwall, Texas native, has 389 digs on the season, moved into a tie for seventh place in digs in a single season.
Freshman Jamiee Freeman finished the match with a team-high 19 digs, while sophomore Muki Kangwa added nine kills and four digs.
Amiee Frutchey led Mercer with a double-double of 10 kills and 13 digs. Nickie Halbert added 13 assists and seven digs.
The Panthers will return to CAA action on Saturday to begin their final seven regular season matches of the season. State will travel to Wilmington, N.C. to face the Seahawks, continuing a six-match road trip at 2 p.m. Georgia State will not return home until November 13th, the final weekend of the regular season, as the Panthers will take on VCU at 5:30 p.m.
Live stats of Saturday night's match will be provided via GeorgiaStateSports.com.
