ATLANTA, Ga. - Berry Volleyball took to Atlanta early this afternoon for the first round of the NCAA Regional hosted by Emory University, taking down the Pirates of Whitworth 3-1.
Senior
Bella Boston dominated today's game with 21 kills. The leader knew what was on the line and showed up to take down Whitworth.
Cypress Guenther, another familiar face to NCAA play was huge at the net accumulating 7 blocks, her season high. Defensively,
Lura Underwood got under many attack attempts for 19 digs.
Set one was the only that Berry fell in, 25-19 with the Pirates boasting 14 kills while Berry had 6 errors in the set. The match was even with both teams ready to brawl for it all until Whitworth took an 11-7 lead off two kills and a Vikings error. Whitworth went up 17-12 quickly and as the Vikings began to try and make a comeback, the Pirates finished it off and headed into the set.
The next three sets were all Berry with just a minor hiccup in set three. In the second, Whitworth started out on top but after a kill by Underwood tot tie it at 8 it was time to turn it on. The set win can be contributed to the 5-0 run boosting the score to 18-13, Vikings. This run was led by four attacking errors from the Pirates and a timely kill from
Keira Kruk.
Tied at one in the match, set three was a show. Berry pulled out the set 29-27 with the final kill by Underwood. During the match, Berry seemed to be en route to a blow out as they went up early 8-2 with kills from
Lilly Teagle and
Lindsey MacDiarmid. However, the Pirates refused to just give up and found a five to nothing run in the set, then it was back and forth until Underwood ended it to give Berry the lead.
With the taste of an NCAA within their reach, Berry continued to dominate with attacks from Boston and second leader, Kruk. The Vikings held the lead the entire fourth set and refused to give up any easy points to their opponent. The Pirates were only able to grasp two kills the entire set while they went on to post eight errors. Experience in these huge games was on Berry's side today, taking the fourth set 25-18.
Tomorrow the Vikings will see a familiar face, Trinity (TX), a soon to be SAA conference opponent. The two will square off tomorrow at 4:30 PM ET for an anticipated Regional rematch that the Vikings want revenge on. Last year the Tigers took down Berry at home in a close 3-2 match to end their NCAA run, taking the Regional Championship.
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