8 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(02/12/19 1:14am)
The managers of the Mercer men’s basketball team formed their own team at the start of the year. The seven-man team made up of Hayden Hatfield, Evan Stair, Ryan Wise, Carson Heien, Jacoby Barry and James Bento is doing well, finding themselves ranked 13th in the nation.
None of the seven members know exactly who or when they thought to form a team, but it may have come from Hatfield.
“I really don't really remember how it came about here, but last year I was at Troy and I know it's pretty popular around the country,” Hatfield said. “Most teams have one nowadays I think.”
Hatfield made it into the second round of the NCAA Managers Tournament with Troy last year, a feat that some on the team want to achieve this year at Mercer.
“I think that's what we're gunning for this year, (to) make some tournament action,” Bento said.
Others like Stair are just looking to have fun playing a game they love with friends. Stair also said that the team has allowed them to have “grown really close.”
Hatfield, Bento and Stair all brought up that part of the team bonding includes coming up with nicknames for each other. Some of the nicknames have the same humor one might equate to dad jokes.
“Evan is ‘handrail.’ His last name is Stair, handrails staircase,” Hatfield said.
Stair then said that Hatfield’s nickname was “needle.”
“We call him ‘needle’ because his name is Hayden so like a needle in a haystack,” he said.
Stair also mentioned that Wise’s nickname was “ryaroni,” and that Heien wanted his to be “Andy Murray” because he believes he has a resemblance to the legendary tennis pro.
Besides Mercer, the other Southern Conference schools to have managers teams are Chattanooga, UNC-Greensboro, East Tennessee State and Western Carolina. And of those schools, Hatfield and Bento believe that ETSU was the toughest opponent yet.
“The ETSU game was pretty fierce. Pretty close game [and] might be rivalry going forward,” Hatfield said.
The managers still have some games left this season and there are hopes of postseason play in the managers' tournament. You can find out more about the team and their schedule on their Twitter account, @ManagersMercer.
(01/30/19 4:03am)
The spring semester may have just started, but that just means it’s game time for Mercer’s men’s and women’s tennis teams. Both teams have played six matches and have had a rough go of it, each going 1-5 to start the season.
Missing players were a possible factor in that slow start.
“We’ve had a couple injuries. When we played Tulsa, we had two guys out with the flu and right now we have two girls out,” said Head Coach Eric Hayes. “So right now we’re trying to get healthy.”
A notable injury that Hayes pointed out was Marie Mottet, a player who normally plays at the top of the team.
A factor that could play into the men’s slow start is the loss of some of the team’s leaders from last season.
Olivier Stuart and Nicolas Guillon, as well as a few of the other seniors, are the ones expected to step up and fill those leadership vacancies. Their focus this season is building team chemistry with the new players.
While getting healthy and bonding as a team are smaller objectives of the team, the primary target of the season comes in March and April when Southern Conference play begins.
“I think every team’s main goal is winning conference, but I think we’ve got a good team this year so I think we’re ready,” said women’s senior tennis player Celine Schepers.
Both teams will play their first home matches of 2019 starting Feb. 3.
The women will host Alabama State, while the men will host the University of Connecticut and Alabama State from Feb. 2-3 before taking on Georgia Southern Feb. 6.
(11/14/18 7:44pm)
Brittany Major has started her college career with a stellar first season, tallying 254 kills and 45 blocks this season. But her transition to college life and sport was helped along by the seniors on the team.
“I would say Danielle Faust and Paige Alsten [have] really mentored me not through just athletics but also like academics... They made it a little easier because it is kind of a hard adjustment period from going to high school to college and being away from home,” she said.
Major has played a number of different positions during the year but predominantly plays on the right side. Her ability to play multiple positions would seem to be unique for someone that has only being focusing on volleyball since the ninth grade.
“I did swimming for a really long time,” Major said. “I stopped around eighth grade probably ninth grade because I wanted to start doing volleyball and take it a little bit more serious because I realized I enjoyed swimming but I really enjoyed volleyball.”
Her decisions on what sport to play or what position to play weren’t her only tough decisions in her young life. Choosing where to attend college was difficult as well.
“At first I was committed to Radford but they're more like a business school and I wanted to hit the pre-med track,” Major said.
The focus to go to medical school and become a doctor in sports medicine lead Major to Mercer, but her enjoyment of Mercer and Macon’s environment made the adjustment to living away from her tight-knit family easier.
“I'm really close with my family. They come first to me,” she said.
Major said she is taking some time to adjust to Macon after moving from McDonough, Georgia.
“Usually my hometown it would have a lot more life and sensibilities of what I wanted to do (and) things were not as far,” Major said. “But I mean here it's fine I'm still adjusting to the downtown parts and finding places to go.”
Not everything in her life is so serious as studying to become a doctor. In high school, Major participated in drama and theatre.
“I was on the clock in Beauty and the Beast which was pretty funny because I'd act like a guy and then... I was Tituba,” Major said. “And then a lot of other times I was just a stage manager… because I got to be the boss.”
(11/05/18 3:38am)
Mercer Men’s soccer has been in fine form the last two months of the season and their work has earned them the Southern Conference regular season title along with a first round bye in the conference tournament.
Both the team and freshman forward Trevor Martineau began to heat up once they moved to using a 4-3-3 formation.
“We were kind of moving around with a lot of different systems but we really found our stride when we played the 4-3-3,” said senior Jake Mezie. “We've just been having great team chemistry scoring a lot of goals.”
The new formation and style of play the team adopted plays to Martineau’s strengths, seeing him tally seven of his nine goals and six of his seven assists since the switch.
“You get a lot of cross in the box and I feel like my aerial game, being 6’4, has been pretty good,” Martineau said. “It's been paying off for me… just doing my job that coach gives me.”
Martineau’s play hasn’t gone unnoticed by the SoCon. He has been awarded three SoCon Player of the Week awards, an achievement that has never been done before by a freshman in SoCon history.
The team securing first place in the SoCon and playoff byes was an important “box checked off” as head coach Brad Ruzzo put it. The consensus around the team is the bye will allow for the team to rest up and get plenty of preparation heading into the conference tournament.
The Bears will be able to address some of the defensive lapses they have gone through in the last couple games by allowing opponents to tie the game from large deficits.
Although the team recognizes the issue, Mezei said they aren’t worried about it being a lasting problem.
“I don't think there's any nervousness. I mean we trust everyone on this team and I know a coach has faith in everyone on the field who's been playing,” Mezei said.
Ruzzo said he feels the defensive lapses could be from a lack of maturity but with 13 freshmen that might happen.
This bye will help the team heal from injuries that have been suffered throughout the season.
“[Getting the bye] helps because we're starting to pick up guys with these little knocks and injuries like groins and hamstrings,” Mezie said. “It’d definitely help us going into the semifinals … getting everyone healthy and having everyone at 100 percent.”
(11/05/18 12:03am)
Cory Kilby is entering his last season with Mercer Men’s basketball, and he looks to step up as a leader and help pass the torch to the team’s underclassmen.
Kilby said he grew up around basketball because of his dad’s love for the sport. He spent a lot of time going to the gym with his dad for pick-up games, but didn’t start to take basketball serious until he got into high school.
“I was big and tall and so it just kind of came naturally to me. But I worked really hard and I just fell in love with the game,” Kilby said.
So why did Kilby choose Mercer? Kilby grew up a North Carolina Tar Heel fan and said he remembers being “happy that Mercer beat Duke” in the 2013 NCAA tournament.
Another reason was the bond that formed between him and Men’s Basketball Head Coach Bob Hoffman during recruitment, a bond that started with the realization that the two are from close to the same area of Oklahoma.
“Coach Hoffman really stuck out to me as a great leader and a great man. He’s what you want in a head coach,” Kilby said.
Hoffman credits Kilby with staying true to who he is throughout college.
“He’s always been grounded … and he knows where he comes from and that’s what makes him such a special young man,” Hoffman said. “I’m blessed to call him one of my players.”
Hoffman also noted that Kilby and his other senior teammate Jaylen Stowe are stepping up to become team leaders.
“[Their] voice has been strong but they just haven’t been saying things, they’ve actually been doing them which is more important in leadership,” Hoffman said.
Kilby and Hoffman share the same view on what they want and expect to be the team’s outcome from the season.
“Nobody really thinks highly of us around the conference … But we believe in ourselves. I think our goal at the end of the season is to win a [Southern Conference] championship and make the NCAA tournament,” Kilby said.
As for what comes after his final season is still up in the air, with Kilby wanting to see if he could possibly play professionally overseas for a season or two. If a professional playing career doesn’t work, he said he would also love to be a coach.
(10/24/18 1:16am)
Olivier Stuart is one of the top performers in Mercer’s tennis program and even has a history of winning on the international stage with his home country of France, having trained and played for the national team since a kid.
“I was like around 5 [or] 6 and my brother was already into it. So I just decided to follow him and see what it gives to me,” Stuart said.
Following his brother proved to be good for Stuart. While playing for the French national team, he was a French National Champion and another year was part of the team representing France that finished runner-up in the European Championships.
“I think he kind of got burned out a little bit in tennis when he was back home. He was part of the national program [and] lived in Roland Garros,” said Head Tennis Coach Eric Hayes. “I think he might get a little tired of tennis.”
Stuart’s renewed interest in tennis just happened to come around the same time he was getting ready for college.
“We caught him at a time when he was getting back into it,” Hayes said. “For two years he's invested a lot of time in his game.”
Hayes had help landing Stuart at Mercer because of a common contact the two share, Stuart’s coach from France.
“His coach is a former player at South Alabama and I used to coach Troy. So I knew him really well and he contacted me about Olivier,” Hayes said. “Luckily we were able to get him to come to Mercer.”
The decision to come to America for Stuart had to do with some of his apprehension about whether to turn pro or not.
“When you reach a moment in your tennis career where you think you won't go pro, like America is a really good option to keep improving without thinking about going pro,” Stuart said.
Stuart said he still hasn’t decided about going pro or not but said that it isn’t really on his mind right now.
Hayes said he feels that talent-wise, Stuart is good enough to go pro, but admits it’ll depend on Stuart’s patience and ability to bring a whole other level of commitment needed at the professional level.
Regardless of whether Stuart goes pro or ends up getting a job with his finance and marketing degree, he wants to stay in the U.S.
(09/29/18 1:38am)
Lauren Whyte was named the new assistant golf coach for Mercer women’s golf by head coach Michele Drinkard back in early August. Whyte joins the Bears after playing two years at Baylor and then two at Denver.
In the team’s press release on Whyte, Drinkard said she was “excited” for the addition of someone with “a wealth of playing experience and knowledge of the game" that would “provide guidance” for the team.
Whyte grew up in St. Andrews, Scotland, known as the home of golf, and has played the sport all her life.
“My parents just put (my brother and I) into a ton of sports,” Whyte said. “But golf was kind of the one I ended up just going with.”
Whyte said the support she received wasn’t just from family. It also came from the Scottish national system where she received training and experience from youth and amatuer tournaments. But once it came time to go to college Whyte decided to come to America.
“It's really common for a lot of the Europeans that want to get an education as kind of a backup plan while also pursuing their golf career to come over to the States just because of the weather, the facilities (and) the level of competition,” Whyte said.
Whyte’s first choice was Baylor University were she studied exercise physiology and after two years transferred to Denver University where she switched her studies to psychology. Whyte had a successful career at both Baylor and Denver and said she has memorable moments from both.
Her favorite moment at Baylor is freshman year where the team finished runner-up to Stanford for the national championship.
“My game came down to me against a girl called Lisa McGuire who is from Ireland, so it's kind of cool thing playing against someone from back home; and we went through I think six extra holes and I end up winning and that took us to the final,” Whyte said. “It was very close, very exciting and a national championship is a great experience.”
As for what drove Whyte to go into coaching rather than pursue a professional career was a want to make sure she was fully prepared to go pro and that she was going pro for the right reasons.
Whyte sees herself as being a player’s coach, a decision that was motivated by the mixed relationships that she had with her college coaches.
“So one of the big things I learned was just how much of an impact your coaches have on your life, [on] your schedule. They tell you what you're doing at practice, pick the tournaments for you, do a lot of things that as an amateur and as a junior you're used to doing yourself,” Whyte said. “And that can really make or break your college career. Your relationship with your coaches is a huge thing.”
Whyte credits her coaches at Denver and the change in “coaching attitudes” and “coaching mentalities” with helping her become happier and in turn improving her stroke count drastically. The relationship between Whyte and her coaches at Denver shaped how she would approach coaching.
“As an assistant I really wanted to be kind of like that bridge between players and head coach and just enhance that communication so if the girls are struggling with anything in life they feel comfortable to come and talk to their coaching staff and then we can help them,” she said.
(09/24/18 2:42am)
The Mercer women’s soccer team is off to a good start to the 2018 season, going 5-3-2 over the first 10 games and having scored 29 goals.
“I think we've done well,” said star forward Abigail Zoeller. “We definitely have shown growth from day one.”
Head coach Tony Economopoulos said he agrees that the start of the season has been “pretty good.”
“Our energy has been great, our game plan has been spot on so we've been the better team,” he said. “Overall our effort has been there and we're peaking at the right time I feel.”
Economopoulos said he believes the best quality the team has demonstrated is their chemistry.
“The chemistry of our team is positive. Everyone's encouraging each other,” he said.
Zoeller said she believes that the team captains, Megan Delmonico, Jordan Christensen and Haley McDuffee, are a large part of why the team has good chemistry and has had a good start to the season.
“You know we've got Megan our vocal leader and then Jordan is also vocal and... and Duffee just her hard work and grit just emphasizes kind of our team motto,” Zoeller said.
Another quality that Economopoulos attributed to the good start the team has had is their ability to create chances.
“The next thing is we're creating a lot more chances this year as opposed to last year...on the offensive side: more corner kicks, more shots, more shots on goal and more goals,” he said.
The team is outscoring opponents this season 29 to 9. Those 29 goals are 14 more than Mercer scored through the first 10 games last season.
A big part of the offensive uptick is in large part due to Zoeller who comes in as a transfer from Kentucky. So far, she leads the team in goals and assists. Her play so far has garnered attention from the Southern Conference with a player of the week award.
“Abigail has been our leader offensively,” Economopoulos said. “Our team really looks up to her to help carry us at times offensively.”
Despite the team's ability at creating chances for goals, Economopoulos said the spot they need to improve in is finishing off those chances and converting them into goals. They have put 98 shots on target so far this season, but have only put 29 of those shots in the back of the net.
“Defensively we've gotten solid, midfield have gotten better, forwards are creating more,” Economopoulos said.
The team isn’t discouraged by their shortcomings at the beginning of the season and they also aren’t resting on what they’ve done well.
“If we keep playing to our potential and keep growing I think we think we could go far,” Zoeller said.