ROME, Ga. - Berry College swept Centre, 3-0, and defeated Maryville, 3-2, at the Cage Center on Friday night. With its sixth straight win, the Vikings improved to 14-3 this season.

Centre Recap

The Vikings avenged its lone SAA defeat after its sweep of Centre by scores of 25-17, 25-13 and 25-15. Berry improved to 7-1 in conference play and Centre dropped to 7-12 and 5-3.

BC hit .307 as a team and held the Colonels to a hitting percentage of .056. Junior Sarah Steffan notched a match-best eight kills for the home team. Fellow junior Stephanie Quinn dished 32 assists and senior Jennifer Tinnell collected 10 digs.

"We definitely wanted revenge because last time we played them we didn't play our best," said sophomore Kelsey Lochstampfor. "Playing them on our home court, we knew had to defend it. It was a great match for us."

"I think the biggest difference from our first match against them was that we came out ready serve and pass well," said Berry Head Coach Mika Robinson.

Maryville Recap

Quinn passed out a match-high 60 assists while Tinnell notched 25 digs to lead both teams in a five-set marathon against Maryville. Berry's Lochstampfor totaled 13 kills and 16 digs. For Maryville Kara Strickland had 14 kills and 21 digs while Kristen Sharp racked up 15 kills and 11 digs.

Shortly after its match against Centre, Berry had a 7 p.m. meeting with the Scots. The first set saw Maryville lead throughout on its way to the win, 25-21. After falling behind 0-5 in the early going of set two, Berry steadily worked itself back into the game and claimed the set, 25-19.

Set three saw Berry trailing yet again, and this time it was unable to mount a sufficient rally as it fell, 25-20. Needing to win the set to stay alive, Berry emerged on top, 25-21, forcing a decisive fifth set. In an intense conclusion to the action, Berry won out, 15-11.

"You have to credit Maryville for the incredible blocking they were doing, and also their style of offense is one that we don't normally see," Robinson said. "It's quite frustrating. They use a lot of finesse shots and ball placement so we had to make some adjustments defensively to handle that. And offensively we had to be a little more patient than we normally are."

"That was crazy," said Lochstampfor of the second match. "It wasn't our prettiest play ever, but we held it together and played as a unit. There's no way we could've stuck it out in those five sets if we hadn't played as a team."

The Vikings host Sewanee at 4 p.m. on Saturday in The Cage Center.

NOTES: The five-set affair against Maryville marked only the third match to last that duration for Berry this season. The other two occurrences came against Transylvania (09.08) and Centre (09.15).

Check out the video produced by Matt Stokes and Andrew Daubin.