Berry's women's and men's basketball teams tip off the 2011-12 season Tuesday night, when they travel to Lookout Mountain, Ga., to face longtime rival Covenant College at Covenant's Barnes Physical Education Center.

The women's game tips off at 6 p.m., with the men's game scheduled to follow at approximately 8 p.m.  Both games can be heard in and around Rome on WLAQ 1410 AM and worldwide on WLAQ's web page at www.wlaq1410.com.  Veteran announcer Randy Davis will have the call.

Links to Covenant's live video stream and statistics feed are also available at www.BerryVikings.com. 

Berry's women's team enters the contest coming off a 13-11 season a year ago.  Coach Stephanie Dunn's team returns a pair of guards who spent the majority of the season in the starting lineup in Brittany Coughlin and Alexa Evans. 

Coughlin led the team in scoring as a junior, averaging 15.7 points per game.  She was second on the team with 5.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists per contest.  Evans started 16 games, averaging 7.8 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.  The pair combined to hit 92 of the team's 163 three-point shots in 2011-12.

Forwards Danielle Sisk, Megan Walsh and Kelly Hastings, each of whom started four games a year ago, and guards Alesa Hammaker and  Maggie Trimble also return.

The Lady Vikings' roster was bolstered in the offseason by a strong recruiting class that includes transfers Pilar Smith (Erskine College), Holli Gibbs (Oglethorpe University) and Allison Lawrence (Winthrop University), as well as freshmen Mel McLean, Chanlir Segarra, Hannah Lowe, Brooke Thomas and Whitley Caver.

Berry's men's team finished 16-11 a year ago, but sophomore guard Mac Whalen, who started four games and played in 24 last season, is the only returning player who has played significant minutes in a Berry uniform. 

Whalen averaged 5.3 points and 2.0 rebounds per game as a freshman, and will be one of the key components of head coach Jeff Haarlow's squad that will often feature four, and sometimes, five guards on the floor at the same time. 

Two other sophomores, forward Lake Graham and guard Hunter Smoak, will likely join Whalen, senior guard Michael Schulthe and freshman guard Nassar Almulla in the starting lineup Tuesday. 

Graham, the team's tallest player at 6-foot-8, will likely see the bulk of the minutes down low, but Cody Marsh, at just 6-foot-2, has also proven to be a valuable presence in the paint during the preseason.

Almulla will serve as the team's primary playmaker in his collegiate debut, but Schulthe and Smoak will likely get plenty of opportunities, as well.  Transfers Kyle Wilson (Georgia Northwestern Tech) and Alex Smith (Lees-McRae) should see plenty of time off the bench for the Vikings.

Following Tuesday's games, both Berry teams will play in tournaments on Friday and Saturday before playing their home openers Tuesday at the Cage Center.

- BerryVikings.com -