For first-year libero Molly Berezowitz’s family, their pastime is sports. With four out of five family members with ties to collegiate athletics, Molly was born into the game.
Molly’s older sister, Maddie, just graduated from Kentucky after winning a national championship in 2021 for volleyball and Kati, her younger sister, just committed to Vanderbilt to play volleyball.
“All of them have had such an impact on being a part of athletics since I was born,” Molly said.
However, this talent doesn’t stop at volleyball.
Molly’s grandpa coached the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s football team for 27 years and both her dad, Steve, and brother, Joey, chose to play collegiate basketball. Steve now coaches at Burlington High School. Due to this, the kids grew up in the gym.
“My dad, since he was a basketball coach, we had access to the gym at all times,” Maddie said. “We would go the gym when we were really little.”
Steve said that the appeal to the gym came solely from the kids, not him and his wife Barbara.
“One of the rules I told them early on was Barb and I would never ask them to go up there. The other rule was if you ask, we’d never say no,” Steve said. “We spent hours at the gym. At the wee hours of the morning, early mornings, our kids kind of became gym rats.”
While all the siblings were able to bond over their love for the gym, the girls’ interest in volleyball pushed them harder.
“It was awesome. Besides just going to the gym in high school, all of our social lives were kind of ‘meh,'” Joey said. “We wanted to be great at what we did, so obviously that takes putting in extra effort. The girls are lucky. They would go up with each other every night. The way that they push each other, it’s awesome.”
A native of Burlington, Wisconsin, Molly and her sisters grew up living and breathing volleyball. She also shares her hometown with junior defensive specialist Samantha Naber.
“Volleyball in Burlington is huge. Everyone plays it,” Molly said. “We went to state the past eight out of nine years in volleyball. That’s how I grew up, and that’s what I knew Burlington was.”
Molly and Kati both had the chance to play two seasons of varsity volleyball and softball together at Burlington High School.
“They really became best friends,” Steve said. “You could see it in the court, you could sense it when you watched them, and as parents that was pretty cool to watch, watching them compete with each other.”
Since Molly and Kati are only two years apart, their skill level progressed very similarly, and they were able to improve side by side.
“Getting to see [the girls play together] at a young age motivated them to do the same thing,” Joey said. “They just pushed each other. It was never me versus you, it was always how can I get you better, how can you get me better.”
The lessons Molly learned from playing with her sister have helped her in the few months she has been at Marquette. Despite being the only first-year on the Golden Eagles’ roster, Molly has quickly found her place on the team.
“It was definitely hard coming in. We went to Europe as a team so that definitely made the transition easier,” Molly said.
Not only did the team travel to multiple European countries together for two weeks, but afterward some of the players attended Molly’s graduation party in her hometown.
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In addition to the team bonding, Molly has found herself confiding in her family for help.
“Right now, I just know what she’s going through,” Maddie said. “I just know the ins and outs of what it’s like to be a college athlete. Balancing school, sports, friendships and family and all of the components that come with being a student-athlete I know so well.”
While all members of the family have created their own path, Molly believes their successes have rubbed off on each other.
“If I didn’t have them, it would have been a lot different,” Molly said.
This story was written by Sophia Woods. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @SophiaWoodsMU.
