What’s in a name? For senior Mercer Maniacs members Braden Brettin and Seth Thompson, it’s a symbol of an unbreakable friendship and years of shared memories. The two formed a strong bond while participating in the Mercer Maniacs during the football season of their sophomore year. Ever since, ...
Katia Stavroulaki started playing tennis when she was just 7 years old. She quickly figured out that the true opponent she faced out on the court was herself, and she enjoyed the independence and self-reliance that tennis required of her. She began competing shortly after picking up a racquet and ...
About a dozen students congregated on Mercer’s Black Field. A few ragged white balls laid on the ground while some miniature pop-up soccer goals rested on the hill leading up to the newly-built football stadium. Few had equipment. There was no structure — no drills. It was simply a group of guys ...
This past Christmas, Jenna Gipperich’s boyfriend of five years bent down on one knee atop a Hawaiian mountain and asked her to marry him. It was only fitting that Gipperich — a cross country and track runner — hauled herself, sweaty and tired, to the top of a mountain to get engaged. “He ...
Six years ago, beach volleyball was not an NCAA-sanctioned sport. But in 2012, 16 schools started a program. Mercer was one of those first 16 teams. And after four competitive seasons, beach volleyball became the 90th NCAA championship sport in June of 2015. The sport now features 50 programs and ...
Lindsey Zeltwanger wasn’t allowed to join the neighborhood lacrosse team until she reached third grade. But even before then, she would tag behind her older sister and could catch and throw a lacrosse ball better than most of the older girls. “I started playing as soon as the older girls let me,” ...
[embed]https://soundcloud.com/user-311195856/inside-the-den-a-just-ruling[/embed] Justin Baxley and Hayes Rule are back in this week with another Inside the Den podcast. On this week's show, Justin sits down with a very special guest to talk about Mercer Golf. The guys also talk about all the spring ...
In a matter of a year, Phillip Leonard went from playing junior college basketball to beating Duke in the NCAA Tournament. He played alongside future Miami Heat summer league team member Langston Hall. He was a part of a team who won an ESPY for “Best Upset.” And he witnessed people asking his ...
Grant Radakovich and Tony Perella are more than teammates. Long before the pair became a part of the Day Ones — Mercer’s first football recruiting class — their families had forged a bond that crossed religious and ethnic lines during the mid-1900s. Grant and Tony became aware of the connection ...
New faces have dominated the Mercer women’s golf team this season. After the resignation of seven-year head coach Gary Guyer, former Ole Miss coach Michele Drinkard was hired in June to lead the program. She wasn’t the only acquisition. Freshmen Mary Janiga, Payton Schanen, Terese Romeo and Hailey ...
Golf is a uniquely individual sport, but collegiate golf is different because it combines scores from the top five players who compete. The highest score, the worst score, is dropped and the remaining four make up the total. The Mercer Men’s Golf team is undoubtedly that: a team. However, individual ...
With just a glance, you may think Linnea Rosendal is like any other college freshman at Mercer University: beautiful, happy and proudly proclaiming an undecided major. But the 6’1 point guard from Sweden has been distinguishing herself since the day she set foot on campus. “I came here in August ...
As bright lights illuminated the hardcourt days after the death of Jibri Bryan, a mourning Hawkins Arena erupted in elation as a 6-foot-8 gliding sophomore jumped from just inside the free-throw line to throw down a bear-sized slam. It was the highlight of an emotional victory. It was a SportsCenter ...
The Mercer women’s lacrosse team is in their second competitive season, but there are some changes. With a new coaching staff, the players are starting fresh — again. This year’s team dynamic, including the relationship between player and coach, is nothing like last year, members of the group ...
The Mercer men’s lacrosse team kicked off their 2016 season over the weekend against Towson. Although the Bears lost the hard-fought match, the game proved to be very instructive, showing the team what they will need to work on in order to meet future success. “Opening the season against a top ...
Whenever Jibri Bryan jumped above the rim in Hawkins Arena, the stadium lights would almost form a halo around his 6-foot-4 frame. The sixth-year senior will never step foot on the court again. He was tragically shot and killed on Feb. 2 at the Flash Foods gas station on the corner of Forsyth and ...
Mercer basketball dropped its fifth straight game Saturday in a 77-74 loss to East Tennessee State. It’s the first time a Bob Hoffman-led team has lost five games in a row, and the program hasn’t done so since the end of the 2007-08 season. But I saw signs of progress and hope Saturday. (1) Don’t ...
Three was the number of points Mercer needed and the number of opportunities it had to tie the game in the final seconds. But when the clock struck zero, the Bears (18-11, 8-8) had come up short, 77-74. The loss was Mercer’s fifth in a row — the worst such streak during head coach Bob Hoffman’s ...
Mercer basketball matched its longest losing streak in over five years with a 72-65 loss to Western Carolina Thursday at Hawkins Arena. Here are my three takeaways from the loss: (1) The loss of Jestin Lewis and Desmond Ringer has been more difficult than expected. When I first got the official statement ...
Solutions by The State News