Mary Harrison, Campus Carrier sports editor

Many Berry students could not wait to get home and enjoy Thanksgiving Break last week. The Vikings’ volleyball team, however, wanted to be out on the court – and had to swallow a bit of grief along with their turkey dinner this holiday.

The Vikings’ post-season run was cut short by an unexpected loss to regional opponent Trinity University in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs on Nov. 17. Berry suffered mental and physical setbacks in the heat of a tight game, which helped the Tigers take a 3-2 win from the Vikings.

In the midst of heartbreak, Berry volleyball is taking solace in the success of its season-long commitment to stay mentally focused and its outstanding performances against tough competition, on an individual and collective level.

Four days after securing the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) conference tournament championship in the Cage Athletic Center, Berry hosted the NCAA regional volleyball tournament. This was the Vikings’ first time competing at home in the playoffs since 2018. 

The Vikings dominated in the first round against Washington and Lee University and started strong in the first two sets against Trinity, but something shifted in the third set.

Junior Bella Boston, a right-side hitter, said perhaps the team got overconfident. Head Coach Caitlyn Moriarty said it could have been a scoring run by Trinity that caused fears of losing at home to creep in. Junior libero Kate Whittle thinks it might have been the roar of the crowd, 1200-1500 fans strong.

“We let our focus up a little bit and resorted back to our old ways of just freaking out in these environments, but then pulled through and really were able to switch back to the Berry volleyball way,” Whittle said.

The team made a full recovery in the fourth set that makes Moriarty proud, with the bench firing up players and working to change their facial expressions and body language. The Vikings led 7-2 in a tiebreaking fifth set. But then the uncontrollable happened: junior setter Lindsey MacDiarmid came down hard from a jump and injured her ankle. The Cage went silent, and Berry players’ minds began to race. 

Replacement setter and sophomore Cadence Maxfield played well, Moriarty said, but the team could not shake the mental distraction out of concern for their teammate – one of the consequences of having a close-knit team.

“I think that’s the good and the bad part about this sport is, it’s so mental and, you know, one off-day, or one injury can make a huge difference,” Moriarty said.

Regardless of why it happened, the team agrees that at points in the game they stopped “playing us,” as Moriarty calls it: maintaining focus and treating each game with the calm collection of practice. The 2023 Berry volleyball team developed this recipe for success in the process of acclimating five freshmen to high-caliber competition.

While the semifinal loss stung hard, since it prevented the team from reprising last year’s record-setting appearance in the D-III Elite 8, Berry volleyball was no stranger to tough competition before regionals. A travel-heavy schedule at the beginning of the season prepared the team for an environment where everybody wanted the championship win, according to Boston, the right-side hitter. 

“It was really just a learning curve of, we know we’re supposed to be here, so let’s play with these teams and just do our best against them,” Boston said.

Whittle, who won the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year award, said she played her best in the fourth matchup of the season against reigning D-III champions Juniata College. Those experiences taught the team that a game is ultimately a success if the “us” is still there, even if it goes in the loss column.

Boston took home the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year award, but she said her career record kills would not have been possible without the strong team chemistry built between the starting juniors and seniors on the court. 

Whittle also attributed her defensive success to the support of her positional group and to the entire team, by how they blocked well at the net and make her defend a good offense in practice, particularly Boston and senior co-captain and outside-hitter Jazzy Innis.

Boston, Innis and Whittle were named All-Americans yesterday by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). Innis reiterated that the team’s efforts were critical to these awards as well.

“These recognitions couldn’t be [possible] without our positional groups pouring into us, holding us accountable and challenging us to be better,” Innis said.

Hosting regionals meant Innis and fellow seniors, Olivia Mallow and Zoë Wooten, ended the season on their home court for the first time at Berry.

Institution athletic departments typically make bids to host the D-III volleyball regionals after winning their conference tournaments. The fast turnaround often requires extra staffing efforts and preparations in advance, according to Athletic Department Office Manager Rhonda Hancock. 

Hancock compared this to hosting the regional tournament for cross country, who competed the weekend prior to Berry Volleyball and also hosted for the first time since 2018.

“I don’t think you can throw that together in a week,” Hancock said.

The host school’s coaches and players are not saddled with extra requirements with playing on their home court. However, it does not always provide an advantage. The coach’s assessment of what is best for their team’s performance determines whether Berry submits a bid to host, Hancock said.

In the past, Vikings Volleyball has performed better in a controlled environment on the road, but Whittle indicated that the home setting was a welcome change for regionals.

“It’s not lights and action, like we’re in some new place that we’ve never been before [with] a time change, or we had to wake up and eat hotel breakfast,” Whittle said. “It’s nice to just wake up, make my eggs and bacon and do what I wanted in the morning, and then report to the Cage.”

Having a crowd overwhelm the stands also proved advantageous this year, according to Boston.

“I think this year we’ve really allowed the fans to fuel our energy and I think that really helped us,” Boston said.

Moriarty said she would not have changed anything about her team’s approach to the season, despite how it ended. When Vikings Volleyball returns to the Cage floor in fall 2024, after losing only three seniors and gaining growth from the beach volleyball and off-seasons, Moriarty said their goals will be the same: to get stronger and improve from every game, win or lose.

“Ultimately, things sometimes happen that are beyond our control, or we don’t understand why they happen,” Moriarty said. “All you can control is how you respond to those things.”