This week, the Mount Aloysius athletics department celebrates DIII Week, an NCAA initiative focused on the celebration and recognition of Division III student-athletes, their experiences, and their contributions.
This season, the Mount Aloysius women's volleyball team saw a four-win improvement from its previous season, making it to the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) tournament semifinal. Later in the year, the Mount Aloysius women's basketball tied its highest ever win total in NCAA competition. Last season, the Mount Aloysius women's tennis team achieved its highest win total in five years.
The through line of these achievements was Mackenzie Barr.
"I kind of fell out of love with basketball, I thought I wasn't going to play again." The three sport athlete remembers, coming out of a difficult final high school season. Although originally brought to campus as a basketball recruit, she began to look at volleyball as a possibility after seeing the school on a tour.
"I loved the tour, everybody was so nice, the community was so welcoming… I love the campus here, I fell in love with everything."
The medical imaging major decided on Mount Aloysius both for academics and athletics, coming into a volleyball team that wasted no time bringing her into the fold.
"I loved our volleyball team… It just feels like a big family. Right away you're having sleepovers with all the girls and sharing houses and stuff. You just kind of felt welcome right away, you have instant friends… Even when we don't hang out as a team, we're hanging out 24/7"
Barr, currently rooming with her twin sister and another volleyball teammate, attributes the team's successes to this chemistry.
"It's just the best because you're friends on and off the court… we have so much chemistry we're just together on everything."
After a freshman season which would see Barr land in the top ten of the conference for blocks, she was ready for another challenge.
"Once I had free time, I was like no, I need to be doing something."
With the women's tennis team unexpectedly shorthanded for the spring season, Barr looked at the sport as another opportunity.
"I was just like 'why not?'. It's a cool college experience… It sounded fun, and the team was super nice."
Barr would go 3-2 for the Mountie women in the spring, competing mainly at four and five singles as the team would see a four win improvement from the previous year. The nine-win season would be the most for the Mounties since 2018-19.
While tennis would prove fruitful for Barr, her focus would stay on volleyball. Her sophomore campaign would see Barr as the only middle voted to the AMCC All-Conference First Team after posting the fifth highest kill count, the fifth best hitting percentage, and the 7th most blocks per set in the conference.
After finding herself with more free time after the end of the volleyball season, Barr decided it was time to join the basketball team.
"[Basketball] was very difficult at the start, because I had so much to think about from my senior year, and it was such a different environment… I was so nervous at first, I was coming in late from volleyball because of playoffs."
A winter break tournament in Nashville would serve to ease all tension.
"After Nashville and playing and getting that experience with them and seeing downtown Nashville, it just brought us so much closer together, and we've hung out ever since…" She remembers specifically karaoke serving to bring the team together in Tennessee. "We went to a little karaoke restaurant, and we all just sang random karaoke songs. We were awful, and there were actually good country singers there, and we were just kind of going with it."
The end results seem to forward her belief in the relationship building of the trip. The team would end with 17 wins, the most in a season since the program joined the NCAA, with Barr averaging 6.4 points and 6.5 rebounds in 16 minutes a game.
After the basketball season came to a close, there would still be one more trip on the docket for Barr: an offseason volleyball team stay in Puerto Rico. The team would spend Spring Break in San Juan, competing against local teams while exploring the city.
"Puerto Rico was so fun… It was a super cool experience to be able to play with other players, and the gym was literally over 90 degrees, so it was kind of fun to have a kind of different environment and see how we have to work through that and how people push through that, even though it's so different."
Even with all the trips, the school (Barr maintains her standing as a Mercy Scholar), and the competitions, Barr continues to focus on fostering team chemistry, forwarding the environment she so benefited from when joining the different programs.
"I'm a big communicator, I'm very extroverted, so instantly, I just want to make [the freshmen] feel welcome… I felt like it was my job."
As Barr finishes up her sophomore year, the friendships with her teammates seem to be sticking around. Next year, she will room with players from all three of her college teams, and look to make more memories from the relationships that fostered such success on the court. Looking back on seasons past, and looking ahead at the good things to come, Barr gives credit to the system itself for what she has experienced.
"With college DIII sports, we are all competitive, but at the same time it's [school] first, but we all want to have a positive experience… It just kind of connects well because everybody knows their job and knows that we want to have good chemistry on the team to make it a fun experience…"
What it comes down to, she says, is simple.
"Everybody just wants it more."
