(Photo Courtesy of Mercer Athletics)

The Mercer Bears are the 23rd DI program and third in the SoCon to release their 2022 men’s lacrosse schedule. The Bears are coming off a 2021 campaign where they went 5-8 overall (2-4 SoCon) during the first season of the Chad Surman era. They missed the SoCon tournament.

Bears’ 2022 Schedule:

Date	Home	Away	Notes
1/15	Mercer	Anderson (DII)	Scrimmage
1/22	Mercer	Tampa/Queens (DII)	Scrimmage
1/29	Mercer	Bellarmine
2/5	Mercer	Bucknell
2/12	Navy	Mercer
2/15	Mercer	Jacksonville	Savannah, Ga.
2/19	Cleveland State	Mercer
3/5	Mercer	Robert Morris
3/10	Mount St. Mary’s	Mercer
3/12	Wagner	Mercer
3/19	Mercer	Air Force
3/26	Utah	Mercer
4/2	VMI	Mercer	SoCon
4/9	Mercer	Hampton	SoCon
4/16	Richmond	Mercer	SoCon
4/23	Jacksonville	Mercer	SoCon
4/30	Mercer	High Point	SoCon

New Opponents

Bucknell, Mount St. Mary’s, Wagner

Team’s Dropped

Duke, Lenoir-Rhyne (DII), North Carolina

Key Games

1/29 vs Bllarmine: The Bears open up the season exactly how they did a year ago: hosting the Bellarmine Knights in January. The only difference is the Bears and Knights are no longer conference foes. Bellarmine won that January meeting, 9-7, last season. The Knights then beat Mercer again in their season finale 11-8 in Louisville. Mercer has only beaten Bellarmone once in 11 meetings and has fallen by an average of 2.6 goals in each of their past three meetings.

2/15 & 4/23 vs/@ Jacksonville:  For the season season in a row, Mercer will meet SoCon foe Jacksonville twice. Once as a conference opponent and once as a non-conference opponent. Last season, the Bears narrowly lost, 11-10, in overtime in their first meeting with the Dolphins before falling 16-6 againt them a month later. With Air Force and Bellarmine leaving the confrence, Mercer has a chance to move up the pecking order in the SoCon and a win over the Dolphins would certainly signal that.

4/30 vs Mercer: The Bears are 3-6 all-time against High Point and currently on a three-game losing skid against the Panthers. Last season, Mercer trailed by one at halftime and the end of the third quarter. However, a 6-1 run in the final period of play put things away for the Panthers in a 16-10 victory. With a both returning solid offenses, it could be another intersting, and possibly closer, contest between these two in 2022.