The No.8-ranked Berry Vikings (18-3, 13-1 SAA) became the 2022 Southern Athletic Association regular season champions for the third consecutive season. The Vikings defeated conference rival Birmingham-Southern (17-4, 11-2 SAA) in a five set thriller (24-26, 21-25, 25-18, 25-18, 16-14) in Birmingham, Ala. on Saturday afternoon.
Jazzy Innis recorded a season high of 18 kills, and Olivia Mallow contributed 16 of her own out of 65 that the team totaled, which happens to be the highest recorded yet this season for the Vikings. Kate Whittle recorded a career high of 36 digs on the day.
            Berry fell the first set 26-24 in a well-fought battle towards the end to close it out. The Vikings found themselves with a slight lead of 6-3 early, but the Panthers quietly surged back to take charge 15-12 halfway through. BSC laid down a kill in the final moments of the first set to make it 22-17, but the Vikings attempted a comeback when Molly Bergin put down a kill to make it 24-24.
            BSC took the second set 25-21 as they kept the momentum for themselves. Although the Vikings led the Panthers in kills, attack errors prohibited the Vikings from taking any meaningful leads.
            The Vikings fought back in the third set, winning 25-18 putting down 17 kills. Mallow gave her team the lead of 11-7, from there Berry finally found their energy in the front row. A 8-2 score run from Berry put them at set point.
            Berry went on a 4 point unanswered scoring run to kick off the fourth set, but the Panthers came back to take their only lead of the set 8-7. From there, the Vikings kept climbing up the scoreboard out-hitting BSC. Emily Rapach put down the final point of the set putting the Vikings in a now or never situation with a championship on the line.
            A service ace from Whittle gave the Vikings a jump start to the fifth set leading 4-1. Eventually the Panthers would go on a scoring run of their own seeing a 10-8 lead on Berry. A kill from Mallow, and a blocking duo of Cypress Guenther and Innis closed out the set 16-14 and crowned Berry as the SAA regular season champions once again. Rapach recorded 52 assists on the day, and Mallow led the team in blocks putting up seven.
            The Vikings will attend the Emory National Invitational in Atlanta, Ga. starting on Friday where they will take on Randolph-Macon to start at 4 p.m.