The many layers of Lipscomb Volleyball’s Meg Mersman

When many people think of Lipscomb senior Meg Mersman, they often see her as one of the leaders and faces of Lipscomb’s volleyball program over the past five seasons. 

They see a 6’2 middle blocker that is the reigning ASUN Conference Player of the Year. They see a former conference champion and a AVCA (America Volleyball Coaches Association) All-American Honorable mention. They see a tough, relentless person who has the aura of someone that you’d want to go to battle with, but when you talk to Mersman about her journey, you begin to see that there are many more layers to her and her story.

Little things like the fact that she could tape an ankle since she was eight-years old, she’s probably broken 20 bones, and she has a cat in her apartment that’s her entire world (all her words exactly).

Mersman has seen a lot since stepping onto Lipscomb’s campus in 2020. And as she prepares to play her final game in Allen Arena on Tuesday night, she reflects on her journey as a Bison. One that includes a global pandemic, a plethora of accomplishments, multiple injuries and surgeries, and a faith-centric transformation that saw her grow in many ways.

Her Beginnings in Volleyball

Mersman’s volleyball journey began when she was in the sixth grade. Though she bounced around playing in multiple different sports as a kid, she ultimately decided to turn her full attention to volleyball when she was around 13 years old.

“I was a very accident prone kid. I’ve probably broken 20 bones. So that’s not even an exaggeration.” Mersman said. “I’ve had almost seven orthopedic surgeries. So I bounced around like all the sports that existed.” 

“It was always something for me. I always had to wear ankle braces in my sports. So it was just like, what sport could I do whatever that wasn’t as bad for my ankles? I hated running, so I hated basketball. I played basketball in middle school and then I experienced my first shoulder labrum tear. So after that I had surgery.  I was kind of coming back into basketball and volleyball at the same time at that age, so that was when I decided like, ‘alright, I don’t really want to run as much anymore. I just want to focus on volleyball.’”

This decision proved to be a wise one for Mersman. During her time at Maryville High School in Maryville, Tennessee, Mersman became one of the state’s standout players as a middle blocker, and vaulted herself amongst the nation’s best young players at the time. So much so, that multiple high major college programs took notice.

Mersman’s path to Lipscomb stemmed from Rocky (Top) Situation

Mersman had offers from schools such as Ohio State, Notre Dame, Alabama, Miami, Georgia, Arkansas, Duke among others, but as the old expression goes, “home is where the heart is”, which is what prompted Mersman to commit to her hometown school, Tennessee in 2017.

However not long after her commitment, Mersman saw the future that she envisioned in Knoxville turned completely upside down.

“The coach there offered me a full ride. So it’s like, alright, this is going to be where I go. One of my best friends on my club team was also going there too, so we were going to play together. Life was going to be great, and then they had a coaching change and the new coach that came in gave me only two out of the four years of full scholarship,” Mersman said.

“I mean, you tell a 17 year old girl that her plan isn’t gonna be what it is, and she freaks out obviously. so I was heartbroken,” Mersman said. “I thought, not that my life was ruined, but I thought like my volleyball career was in shambles and I like wasn’t good enough to play at this level. And by that time, all the other power five offers that I had had been taken up. Once I committed to Tennessee, they reached out to their other options, so a lot of my other options were already taken. So then I went back through the recruiting process and it was mainly small schools, but I was fine with that.”

So Mersman was back on the recruiting trail and was again in search of her future collegiate home. By the end of it, she had narrowed her decision down to two schools, College of Charleston and Lipscomb.

Mersman announced her commitment to Lipscomb in September of 2018, highlighting a 2020 class for Lipscomb that was ranked amongst the top in the nation. 

“I loved everything about each school, but I kind of had some family here because I grew up in Dickson [Tennessee], so I had a little bit of family in the area and I don’t love the beach [which is in Charleston], so I figured that was kind of like the Lord telling me, ‘Okay, there’s another girl out there who loves every single thing about Charleston. Like I love everything about.’  So it was kind of just like my God wink of this is where you’re supposed to be,” Mersman said.

“I kind of just looked at where I felt that I’d be valued and heard, where I could grow in my faith potentially, because that wasn’t really something that I really had in high school, so the faith aspect of Lipscomb was really cool to me.” 

Growth in Faith, Spirit and Vulnerability

That faith component was an important aspect for Mersman in her college decision, as her commitment to Lipscomb also came at a time in her life where she began to take significant steps in her faith journey.

“I grew up in a household where my dad was religious and my mom wasn’t. So faith was kind of like a take it as you come kind of thing.” Mersman said. “I kind of reevaluated my Christian faith. I made it my New Year’s resolution in my senior year of high school to be closer to the Lord, which sounds cheesy, but it was just like something I felt I needed in my life.”

Mersman then began to attend local bible studies through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and attended a mission trip during her senior year at Maryville. When she got to Lipscomb however, she began to see her faith be challenged and tested in multiple different ways. 

“Everything was good, and then you get to college and everybody’s freshman year sucks. I felt while I was doing really well on the court, I felt really alone, and we had some other like team stuff going on. So it’s just like a huge mental thing.” Mersman said. “I just knew that if I was performing, like I’d be okay, and it didn’t really matter like what kind of faith I had or what kind of mental battles I was fighting.” 

All of this changed for Mersman in 2022 during her junior year, when she suffered a devastating injury in the middle of conference play that would ultimately end her season; derailing what looked to be best season of her career at the time.

“…that was like the first injury I had that was like, traumatic and sudden.” Mersman said. “It almost in a sense, like pissed me off. Cause I was like, ‘Well, I was doing so well and like I’m such a voice and a leader for this team.’ So I was like disappointed in myself. I was disappointed in the Lord and all the things. So then I kind of reevaluated that Spring.”

“I think my biggest turning point for me was going to church by myself for the first time.” Mersman said. “I had never done that, and so going to church by myself for the first time allowed me to be vulnerable in that sense. So I’ve kind of like in the past year and a half-ish, vulnerability has kind of been my word of just being able to share my faith with people, which is something I would have never done in the past, as well as encouraging others in it.”

Looking Towards Life After Volleyball

Mersman has long had the perception of being a tough and intimidating person, especially when she’s in her element on the floor. Though she acknowledges that notion and even revels in it, there’s much more to Mersman than what the outside world tends to see.

“I do have this extremely tough exterior and I’m not going to show anybody anything other than that unless I’m close with them, which is something I’m working on. Vulnerability is something that I battle with every day.” Mersman says.

Though she admits that it won’t be easy walking away from the game that has shaped so much of her life, there is also a feeling of excitement for what’s next in Mersman’s life.

“I am so content and at peace with knowing that I’m done with volleyball after this.” Mersman admitted. “My body needs a break and that’s something I look forward to every day. Of course I want to be with my people every day, but I also look forward to the day where I’m not in pain. Like I don’t know the last time I’ve gone probably even two weeks without being in pain, so I’m excited to give my body a break.” 

Mersman, who has a deep passion for orthopedics and medicine and is enrolled in the master’s program at Lipscomb, already has her future aspirations in mind for when her volleyball career wraps up.

“I love school, so I’m really excited to focus on school and see how much more I can raise my GPA without volleyball taking up most of my time. And I’m ready to apply to PA school, go through the PA process. I would love to help other athletes, just because I love orthopedics.” Mersman said.

“The dream is to move home and work at Maryville in some type of orthopedic/PA way. Just because sports injuries have always been something that I’ve gone through and hated, and I’ve loved the people who have helped me through it. So I would just love to return that in that way.”

So when you see Meg Mersman on the court or around Lipscomb’s campus, there’s much more to think about outside of just what she has done on the court. 

You can see Mersman for someone who has come to embrace her faith to the fullest. Someone who is embracing the difficult skill of vulnerability and opening up to sharing that faith with others. Someone who has learned to persevere through trials and tribulations of multiple forms. And someone who despite her “tough exterior” has many layers to who she is and who she wants to be.

The Bisons will play their final home game of the season on Tuesday night at 6:00PM CT against Austin Peay.