The Oglethorpe volleyball team found itself in a tough matchup Wednesday night as they traveled to Mount Berry, Georgia, to take on in-state SAA foe Berry, ranked 21st in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association Division III poll. Despite a valiant second-set effort, the Stormy Petrels fell 3-0 to the home-standing Vikings to fall to 2-9 on the season, 0-3 in SAA play.

The match got off to a poor start for the visitors, as they fell 25-8 in the opening set. However, the Petrels responded with a second set that pushed their ranked opponents. The Petrels jumped out to a 7-3 advantage early in the stanza and extended their lead to 11-5. The Vikings came back with a run of their own, embarking on an 8-2 spurt to tie the set 14-14. After that, it was a back-and-forth affair for the remainder of the set. Berry came back to within a point, but Oglethorpe pushed back out to a small lead and had set point at 25-24. Berry averted the set point, though, and the two teams traded points for the next several minutes. Finally, the Vikings were able to score twice in a row to take the second set, 31-29.

Oglethorpe had an early lead in the third set, pushing to a 5-4 advantage. Berry came back with four straight points to take an 8-5 lead and would not trail again, but Oglethorpe kept the set close. They answered the four-point run with a mini-spurt of their own, tying the score at 9-9. The two teams traded a couple of points to make the score 11-11 a few moments later, but Berry then started the run that would give them control of the set. They went on an 8-1 stretch to take a 19-12 lead, then traded points with the Petrels for the rest of the match. They went on to take a 25-16 third-set victory.

The Petrels got 10 kills from freshman outside hitter MaryAnn Smith, as well as three kills on six attempts from freshman setter Hannah Masiongale. Masiongale shook off an apparent injury in the second set and returned to the match. She collected 18 assists and six digs over the course of the evening. Freshman defensive specialist Savannah Grove served as the libero for the majority of the match and led the team with nine digs on the evening. Fellow freshman defensive specialist Lexi Grams joined Masiongale with six digs.

The Petrels will continue SAA play this weekend when they go back on the road for two more matches before finally returning to Dorough Field House for their SAA home opener next weekend, with a midweek road tri-match in between. The Petrels will head to Tennessee to take on Sewanee Saturday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time before continuing up to Danville, Kentucky, on Sunday to take on Centre at 2 p.m.