The Berry College Women’s Volleyball program outlasted the Hanover College Panthers in another five-set match in the NCAA Division III First Round at the Woodruff PE Center on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

Berry needed to hold off a strong Hanover charge over the final sets to advance to tomorrow’s second round match against Covenant College. Match time is slated for 4:30 PM.

The Vikings raced out the early 2-0 match lead following 25-22 and 27-25 victories in the opening sets. However, HC forced a decisive fifth set with back-to-back set wins of the own, claiming the third and fourth sets by scores of 25-22 and 25-19. But it was all Berry in the fifth as the Vikings captured 15 of the 18 points en route to the 15-3 set win.

Berry was led by Micayla Bedoian, Emily Hancock and Christina Goforth who all tallied double-digit kills. Bedoian had a game-high 17 terminations with Hancock adding 15 and Goforth turning in 13 of her own. Hannah Kate Thompson handed out a match-high 53 assists with Elizabeth Ragland and Hancock corralling 20-plus digs with 24 and 22 respectively.

Courtney Crawford paced the Panthers with 11 kills while Margo Main had 10 terminations. Haley Alexander and Abby Crump combined to dish out 47 assists. Defensively, Monique Huynh collected 24 digs and Kristin Goben totaled 15.