Mercer women’s lacrosse opens its season at home against Virginia Tech on Friday, Feb. 6 at 3 p.m.
The Bears enter the season hoping to keep the momentum of last season’s 12-8 record and Big South conference championship victory. The team will play a 17 game season, including seven at home and 10 on the road, and it will finish off the season defending its fourth-straight Big South tournament title.
Mercer faces some of their toughest opponents in non-conference games against big names like University of Florida, who the Bears lost to in the first round of the NCAA playoffs last year, Clemson University and Virginia Tech. Mercer upset Clemson last year, who was ranked No. 9 in the country at the time.
The non-conference games against larger schools will test the Bears before they begin conference play, where they have been dominant for years, having only lost one conference game since April 2022.
The team is led by Head Coach Samantha Eustace, who is entering her 11th season at Mercer with an 113-79 record. The Bears have a 54-19 conference record under her leadership and have made five NCAA appearances, the most under any coach in team history.
Consistency will be a big focus for the team, which is returning a number of key players from last year. Two Bears earned recognition as 2026 Big South Preseason Players of the Year in their position.
Caroline Glus ‘26, an attacker, was named the Big South Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. Glus currently sits sixth all-time in program history with 127 career goals. Ansley Walters ‘27 was named the Big South Preseason Midfielder of the Year for the second consecutive year. Last season, both were named First Team All-Conference selections for helping the Bears win their fourth straight Big South conference title.
This season, Mercer added 12 new players to their team, all from different states, bringing in depth and unique strengths on the field.
“As a coaching staff we are excited for this extremely talented and athletic class,” Coach Eustace told Mercer Athletics. “They bring great energy and have fun personalities which will be great for us on and off the field.”
After Sami Lowinger '25 graduated last year, Mercer’s attack will rely more on freshmen Anna Rivera ‘29 and Jordan DiPietro ‘29 to step up and learn from Glus in her final season with the Bears.
Joslyn Hicks ‘29 is a Journalism major at Mercer University. She is excited for her first year as a staff writer for The Cluster. In her free time, you can find her reading a book or singing along to Taylor Swift songs.
