Berry College Volleyball will square off against the Panthers of Birmingham Southern at 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 25, in a battle with post-season tournament implications.
The final conference match of the season for both teams pits the No. 2 Panthers against the No. 3 Vikings in what could be a fight for second place in the Southern Athletic Association.
Both teams come into the match riding two impressive win streaks. The Vikings (20-5 overall, 10-3 conference) have rattled off seven straight victories, including a 3-0 win over conference-leading Hendrix. Birmingham Southern (21-3, 11-2) is playing with the momentum of its own six-game winning streak.
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Senior setter Lauren Schmitz
Photo by Chantal Guerrero
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Both teams also have matches Saturday, Oct. 24, against lower-ranked opponents, so both streaks are expected to only extend prior to Sunday’s matchup.
If history is a guide, Sunday’s match should be a fast-paced shootout, because it pairs two of the conference’s most efficient offenses. The Panthers and Vikings are ranked first and second in the conference, respectively, in team hitting percentage.
Leading the Vikings on offense will be a duo of middle hitters, Katie O’Rourke and Jessica Gum. O’Rourke, a senior All-American, leads the SAA in hitting percentage at .359 percent, with Gum second in the category. And setter Lauren Schmitz has been an assist machine in 2015 and ranks No. 2 in the conference in assists per set.
Head coach Mika Robinson said she expects her strive to take control of the match early.
“Katie and Jessica both have the ability to take over a match with their hitting and blocking,” said Robinson, who has led her team to a 10-3 conference record. “If they play well early in the match, we will be hard to stop.”
Panther prowess
Birmingham Southern’s offense is led by Jeneva Salter, a freshman out of Bob Jones High School, and Katie McCormack, a senior from Germantown, Tenn. Salter leads the SAA in kills per set at 4.18, while McCormack leads the conference in assists per set with 10.28.
With two high-caliber offenses on the court, both defenses will be under a lot of pressure come Sunday.
Junior libero Katie Truluck has anchored the Viking defense this season with her signature acrobatic digs. She sits at third in the SAA in digs per set with 5.04, but in the Vikings’ previous match against the Panthers, she had only three.
The Panther’s defense starts with senior libero Lauren Bedford, who averages 4.93 digs per set, just behind Truluck on the conference leaderboard. In their first match of the season against Berry, the Panthers held the Vikings to their lowest point total of the season — 39 points through three sets.
Gum, a junior transfer from West Georgia, said she believes the Vikings have made the changes necessary to defeat Birmingham Southern this second time around.
“Our team has come a long way since the first match,” said Gum, who leads the SAA in blocks per set. “You will see much better (Viking) offense in this game.”
Berry is still playing without the help of senior Emily Stromberg, who is out with a back injury.
Tournament implications
If the Vikings win and create a tiebreak for second place in the SAA, that tiebreak will be broken by head-to-head set record against each other. The Vikings would need to defeat Birmingham Southern 3-0 to force a second tiebreak. This tiebreak would be decided by set win percentage against all other conference opponents (sets won/total sets played). Berry holds the advantage over the Panthers headed into the weekend.
A No. 2 seed in the conference tournament would match Berry up against the No. 7 seed in the first round of the tournament. A third-place finish would mean playing the No. 6 seed.
Berry will play either Sewanee University or Rhodes College in the first round. The two teams are tied for sixth place with 3-9 conference records, and both are three games out fifth place. Those teams also play Sunday.