By Matthew D. Stokes, BerryVikings.com Lead Writer

ROME, Ga. – Facing its crosstown rival on its home court, Berry women's volleyball struggled to maintain leads all night as it fell to Shorter in three sets on Wednesday evening at The Cage Center.  Set scores were 21-25, 24-26 and 23-25.

Freshman Emily Stromberg led Berry with 12 kills, in addition to her 12 digs.  Junior Stephanie Quinn totaled 34 assists, and senior Jennifer Tinnell had 15 digs.  For Shorter, Leslie Welch hit .737 with a match-high 15 kills.

Berry dropped to 18-5 while Shorter upped its season ledger to 14-5.  Berry still leads the all-time series, 15-10.

In the opening set, Berry battled early and led 20-15 before succumbing to a late Shorter rally, 25-21.  Set two saw Berry squander another five-point advantage and lose, 26-24.  To close out the action, Shorter led for most of the final set on its way to the clinching victory, 25-23.

"I thought both teams put on a great show for our crowd tonight," said Berry Head Coach Mika Robinson.  "We did a lot of the things we had hoped to do in the match, but we let a string of points go in each set.  Unfortunately, when two teams are that closely matched, it only takes one string of points to decide it.  This match is great preparation for the finish to our season, and we are looking forward to finishing regular season conference play this weekend."

Berry's pink jerseys for Wednesday's match were auctioned off.  All proceeds from the event will go toward the Side Out Foundation, a charitable group that is dedicated to the unification of volleyball and breast cancer awareness, education, and research.

Additionally, the Berry sports information office used a live Twitter feed during the match.  In addition to score updates, informative tweets about breast cancer were sent.

Berry will return to action on the road this Friday at Birmingham-Southern in a Southern Athletic Association matchup.  First serve will be 7 p.m.