SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa.- The Slippery Rock University volleyball team closed out the 2016 season with a 3-0 sweep of Mercyhurst Saturday afternoon on "Senior Day" at Morrow Field House. The Rock shutout the Lakers with wins of 25-17, 25-16 and 25-23.
 
Slippery Rock wraps up the season with a 13-19 record and a 5-13 mark in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Mercyhurst drops to 15-14 overall and 7-11 in the conference.
 
Senior Leah Jones led The Rock in her final career match with 12 kills and a service ace. Jones leaves Slippery Rock ranked 11th in program history in kills with 949 and 11th in total points with 1,068.
 
In perhaps the best performance of her career, senior Cassidy Schoof finished in style as she recorded 10 kills to go with three blocks.
 
Senior Jaden Zimmer, who missed nearly the entire season with an injury, came in for the final set and contributed two blocks and one kill. Zimmer leaves The Rock ranked 14th in program history in total blocks with 186.
 
Brooke Bostwick registered 10 kills and a team-high four blocks, while Kristen C. Smith had an ace.
 
Haley Defibaugh tallied 18 assists, while Zoe Rivet added 15. Courtney Oberlander recorded 17 digs to push her newly established single-season dig record to 648.
 
In the first set, Slippery Rock broke off from a 5-5 tie with five straight points to lead 10-5. Mercyhurst fought back to cut its deficit to just one point, 14-13, but Slippery Rock went on a 6-0 run to take a 20-13 lead. The Rock outscored the Lakers 5-4 down the stretch to come away with a 25-17 first-set victory.
 
Slippery Rock broke away from another tie in the second set, this time at 12-12 with another five-point run to take a 17-12 lead. The Rock maintained a healthy lead for the remainder of the set and closed it out with three straight points, thanks in part to two kills from Jones, to win it 25-16.
 
Mercyhurst got out to a 5-3 lead in the third frame, but Slippery Rock put together a 5-0 run to go up 8-5 early. SRU held onto a substantial lead for the rest of the set and had it all but put away at 24-18, but Mercyhurst cut it to one thanks for five unanswered points. Jones closed out the match with a kill to lead The Rock to a 25-23 win.


Additional Notes
In addition to holding the single-season dig record (648), Courtney Oberlander concludes her junior season ranked 15th in SRU history in career digs with 1,241. Haley Defibaugh will enter her senior year tabbed at eighth in program history with 1,543 assists. Brooke Bostwick's 65 blocks recorded this season ties her for 11th in Slippery Rock volleyball single-season history.