Berry Vikings set to host the conference tournament for third year in a row

Mary Harrison, Campus Carrier sports editor

It’s Mountain Day weekend. The stands are full of family and friends, cheering on the Vikings volleyball team, who are undefeated in conference, as they take on the Centre College Colonels. And the Vikings lose.

This was the scenario that left many Berry players brokenhearted last year. This year, in the same setting, a team set on redemption solidly defeated the Colonels 3-1. Junior setter Lindsey MacDiarmid described the homecoming game earlier this month as the best volleyball the team have played so far in the semester.

“We took last year and wanted to rewrite our story,” MacDiarmid said. “We just felt like one unit on and off the court. [It] just felt like us, truly.” 

Fast-forward to the end of October, and the Berry Vikings indoor volleyball team claimed the regular season championship title after beating conference foes Hendrix College and Rhodes College last weekend. Despite enjoying an 18-4 record and preparing to host the conference tournament, Head Coach Caitlyn Moriarity said she is still waiting for her players to reach peak performance this season.

In addition to Centre, the Vikings earned another redeeming win to open the season. The team trounced 3-1 Transylvania University, who knocked Berry out of the NCAA national playoffs last Fall. 

Moriarty said that the Transylvania game was already scheduled before the 2022 season-ending matchup, as part of a challenging schedule preparing them to play high-stakes volleyball throughout the season. The first nine games were played on the road against mostly Top 25 ranked opponents.

“That was kind of the jumpstart [at] the beginning of our season where we were recognizing, this is not going to be a cakewalk,” Moriarty said.

The early competition continued to prove challenging. Three of the four Viking losses so far this season came on the road against these teams, including a solid 0-3 defeat to reigning D-III champions Juniata College. 

Moriarty said that while each loss was respectable, every game except for the loss to Juniata was an example of Berry volleyball beating themselves. She believes if the team could go back now and play those games, they would win.

“While we learn from those experiences, we don’t necessarily let them beat us up at the end of the day,” Moriarty said. “You have to move forward, and you have to think about the next opponent, or ‘how do we make an improvement or adjustment the next time we play that team?’” 

The challenging beginning served its purpose to prepare the team for good volleyball. Berry went on to go undefeated in conference, pending two games against Millsaps College and Birmingham-Southern College this coming weekend. Moriarty said the team has to practice and play knowing there’s a target on their back. 

Virtually all her players are committed to and excited for this level of competition, Moriarty said, compared to half of them when she first took over the program in 2016. Moriarty said the quality of recruits and intensity of competition in NCAA Division III volleyball has risen across the board in the past several years, as there has been increased visibility among D-III schools and more acceptance for talented female athletes to choose quality of life of D-III rather than the scholarship level. 

In addition to Berry and other new arrivals to the D-III scene, well-established national and regional powerhouses also benefit from better recruits, such as Emory University, who the Vikings lost to 0-3 earlier in the season and will take on again at the Emory National Invitational.

“This is not an easy season or easy program to walk into, and we know that,” Moriarty said.

Senior middle blocker Zoë Wooten said this year’s schedule is the most the program has been on the road during her four years on the team. MacDiarmid agreed with Wooten that the hecticness and mental exhaustion of so much travel has been the most challenging part of the season for seasoned players and the team’s three freshmen alike. There were times that the entire team was working on homework together on the bus or during layover, according to Wooten.

However, the culture of family that defines the team’s “us” has seen the Vikings through. One key moment from the season was a rare home practice at the beginning of the season devoted to bonding, Wooten said, baking and learning the love languages of their personal development groups. 

The fierce connection between players shone through in the team’s game against Transylvania, Wooten said, as they felt like they were playing to win for recent graduates in the alumni network. She experienced a foretaste of this loyalty when clinching the regular season championship on Senior Day, surrounded by both the biological and chosen families who have supported her over the past four years.

“Berry volleyball plays for Berry volleyball and will always play for Berry volleyball,” Wooten said. “We’ll just always support each other. We can do this, and we will do this, for them.”

As Berry is preparing to host the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) conference tournament on Nov. 10-12, Moriarty feels that Berry volleyball has not yet reached its peak this season. She said the Mountain Day win against Centre was their best so far because it represented what peak looks like, with the team executing with calm confidence as they do in practice and not getting phased when challenged by their opponent.

“It doesn’t matter the outcome [of the match] because I still think we would feel better about performing at our highest capacity,” Moriarty said. “Whatever role an individual was in, they felt good about their ability to fill that role.”

To guarantee a spot in the post-season NCAA tournament, the Vikings need to come up victors in their most anticipated game, the conference tournament championship. The tournament is played by the rule of sudden death, where one loss will knock the team out.

 Players Wooten and MacDiarmid said the team plans to just focus on one game at time and not underestimating opponents they have previously defeated, remembering the target on the Vikings back.

“We can’t take it easy and we can’t expect to win,” MacDiarmid said. “We still have to play ‘us’ and play our game.”