MACON, Ga.– Georgia Southern volleyball (9-1) has now won nine of its first ten games after taking down Mercer (3-7) on the road, downing the Bears 3-1 (17-25, 25-22, 25-15, 25-13) in Macon on Thursday.

"I thought we did a great job today, especially bouncing back," head coach Chad Willis said. "We knew that would happen, we knew they'd have some energy at their home opener, but we did a great job of wearing them down after that."

Mercer came out fired up in its home opener, controlling the opening set from the jump. The Eagles could not gain any footing, as the Bears hit a scorching .548 to open things, taking the first frame 25-17.

The Eagles got behind by as much as 6-1 in the second set, but the tides began to turn. Reagan Barth had five of her 17 kills in the match as the Eagles took the lead and then some, knotting the match at one with a 25-22 win.

"We did a great job of staying connected today and not getting too down after the first set," Barth said. "They were opposing our hitting well, but we figured it out and came back."

The third set was all Georgia Southern, as the Eagles began to work at the net. Barth added four more kills, Jillian Gray contributed four of her own, and the team had a pair of blocks. Ailie Hair and Gray combined on a block to end the set at 25-15.

The Eagles spread the wealth around in the final set, as the Bears once again were unable to halt the visitors' momentum. Six different Eagles notched a kill, and all that was needed to win was an Ashlyn Lovett service ace to win 25-13.

Barth's 17 kills were a match-high, while Paige Powers put up 15, also higher than anyone on the home team. Lovett had another 20-dig game, and Kirsten Barrett's 31 assists were also a match-high.

The team extended its best start to a season to 9-1 and now moves to 2-0 in true road games.

Georgia Southern returns home for its non-conference finale as it plays host to Bethune-Cookman on Friday.