Ward Sutlive, sports editor

It’s often been said that each cloud has a silver lining. This is true when speaking of the Berry volleyball team’s Sept. 5 match against Ithaca College, which they lost. Despite the loss, senior opposite hitter Madie Whitehead managed to set a record of 25 kills in three sets. This record is formally known as the “Kills-Three-Set Match Record.” The last person to break this record was Bella Boston, who graduated in 2025. While she was not aware at first, the news of this record brought her a great deal of joy.

“I honestly wasn’t even aware that I accomplished it at first,” Whitehead said. “I was super ecstatic to hear it was a record that was broken.”

According to Assistant Volleyball Coach Molly Bergin, this is quite on brand for Whitehead. Bergin said that Whitehead has always been a reliable and steadfast player, which contributed to her doing so well in preseason training.

“She had a great preseason leading up to these games,” Bergin said. “I knew that she was going to be a weapon for us and she performed really well.”

Whitehead’s positive energy also extends to her teammates, who she will often encourage before games begin, and will even continue to do so in the heat of matches. As a whole, Bergin thinks Whitehead’s two most important traits on the court are her confidence and ability to build relationships with her fellow players.

“I think [Whitehead] is a really strong player,” Bergin said. “She just has an incredible ability to be put in high pressure situations and have a lot of confidence on the court.”

Whitehead’s teammates also think highly of her, such as senior outside hitter Keira Kruk. Having known Whitehead since her freshman year, Kruk has been able to watch her grow both as a person and a player. With all of that shared experience, Kruk said that she is happy to have been a part of her journey.

“I loved watching her confidence grow from her freshman year,” Kruk said. “She’s super determined, is a very fierce competitor, always works to get one percent better every single day and just pushes everyone in practice to be their best.”

While Bergin is proud of Whitehead, she does not believe that the record she broke balances out the loss that the team received in that game. She believes that as a combined unit, the team did not perform the best that they possibly could. However, she believes that the team will do better in the future. According to Bergin, breaking records has never been a major goal that the team strives for and is merely a byproduct of the wins that they achieve.

“There’s always opportunities for records to be broken, but I would say that isn’t necessarily our goal,” Bergin said. “Our goal is to play together and accomplish the things that measure success.”

Despite this victory, Whitehead does not put too much of a focus on breaking records. Instead, she tries to live in the present and focus on the game at hand, rather than thinking about things that may not happen in the long run. However, regardless of the fact that she believes this record-breaking score of kills will not have a widespread effect on the team, Whitehead does see the memory of this achievment helping her in the days to come.

“I think that it’s just another one of those things that gives you a little confidence boost but ultimately doesn’t mean anything because it’s not going to help our team in the long term,” Whitehead said.

Whitehead believes that breaking this record made her realize just how capable she truly is as a player. Because of this, she plans to hang onto this personal victory, and will work to revisit it in the moments in which she doubts her capabilties

“Having accomplished it and knowing that I am capable of performing in a manner like that during a game helps me know that I’m capable of more than I may have exhibited on an off day.”

According to Whitehead, the team has a big weekend ahead of them. They will participate in the Centre Pod in Danville, Kentucky. They will play against Southwestern University on Friday at 5:00 p.m., and against Trinity University and Centre College on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. respectively. As a result of this, Whitehead will put thoughts of records and previous losses aside and instead work to help win all three matches. According to Whitehead, this is especially important because these specific victories, particularly against Centre College, will be greatly beneficial to the team in the big picture of the season.

“I’m focusing on this weekend and how I can best prepare and show up as my best self for my team,” Whitehead said. “We are playing very tough conference opponents, and Centre is currently ranked sixth in the nation so a win over them would be very huge.”