Player Spotlight: Elli Merchant, Trinity

Sport: Volleyball

Class: 2017

Position: Setter, Middle Blocker, Outside Hitter

Her story: Merchant has been serving it up since the fourth grade. However, sand volleyball is more of her passion, a sport fairly new to the NCAA, where she’s getting looks from TCU, Louisiana State and Mercer University in Georgia. She’s played on sand three years, saying it was the best decision she has ever made. “Volleyball is a sport with constant excitement, and you play with other people who push you to do your best on and off the court,” Merchant said. She has traveled and trained a lot during the summer and just finished one of the most exciting matches of her young sand career. “About two weeks ago, my beach partner and I were playing in the Beach Volleyball Clubs of America National sand tournament in California and had to play two of the top sand players in the country in our age division. We took the match to three games, came up short in the end by just a few points, but that didn’t stop us from smiling because we knew that we played our best and made the other team work for the win,” Merchant said. The junior-to-be enters her second year with the Trinity varsity team after finishing last season with a bi-district appearance, the program’s third-straight playoff trip. “Going to Trinity is so much fun, I love playing for Trinity because almost every home game, our stands are crowded with other students, family and future Trojans,” Merchant said. She’s also played golf for the Lady Trojans, a sport she would pursue more if not for volleyball – it runs in her family. “Both my brothers played at Trinity and it’s always fun to play together as a family on the weekends,” she said. So why sand – what’s the difference between indoor volleyball? Merchant loves the added responsibility and control. “Because it’s a two-man team, I am involved in every single point, I never come off and I push myself to do my best,” she said.

Fun fact: Merchant said most people don’t know that she made the Trinity varsity girls basketball team her freshman year and quit before the season started to focus more on volleyball.

What she said about the Lady Trojans: “Last season was really exciting for me because it was my first year on varsity. With the changes in our district, we knew from the start that we were going to be the underdogs and had to work harder than anyone else in order to prepare ourselves for our season. The same is true for this upcoming season, we lost some amazing seniors last year who really helped our team rise to our potential, but we have other players more than ready to step it up and lead our team.”

What she said about Coach Mia Langi: “She’s my main inspiration because of everything she does to help us succeed and develop as young athletes and women. She goes above and beyond as a coach, which not only pushes me to do my best, but also pushes the team to achieve greatness. She believes in the success of our team, but also pushes us to be leaders off the court.”

- Brian Gosset, bgosset@star-telegram.com

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Player Spotlight: Elli Merchant, Trinity."