Aliyah Waldon, a former Mercer volleyball player from Odessa, Fl., died Sunday after a months-long fight with cancer. She was 19.
"Our hearts are extremely heavy tonight as the entire Mercer community mourns the passing of Aliyah 'Ali' Waldon," a social media post by Mercer Athletics wrote on Sunday evening. "Ali was a tremendous teammate, daughter and friend whose smile could light up Hawkins Arena."
Waldon was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, in October 2024, she told 13WMAZ, after playing her first season at Mercer in 2023. Throughout the 2024 season, players on the volleyball team tied yellow ribbons in their hair and wore warmup jerseys with the message "I fight" on them in yellow letters, in support of Waldon.
After medically retiring from volleyball in 2024, Waldon followed Chad Sutton, the former volleyball head coach at Mercer, to Appalachian State University and later pursued a career in coaching in Clearwater, Fl., according to App State Athletics.
Todd Anderson, a spokesman for Mercer Athletics, said that the team continued to wear yellow ribbons this season, donning them on Friday, and that all home athletic events will hold moments of silence for Waldon in the coming days.
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Gabriel Kopp '26 is double majoring in Journalism and Law and Public Policy at Mercer University. He has written for The Cluster since he started at Mercer, and currently works as Editor-in-Chief. When he isn't working on a Washington Post crossword, he enjoys going for runs around Macon and reading The New York Times or the AJC while sipping coffee.
