¾«¶«´«Ã½

3/26/24

 

 

In honor of Women’s History Month, which falls in March, we are going to take a look at the first women’s All-Americans by sport at ¾«¶«´«Ã½.

 

Terry Dorner helped lead the ¾«¶«´«Ã½ women’s basketball to its first National Tournament appearance in 1980. During her first year at Mercer, Dorner became the college’s first Women’s Basketball All-American. Dorner was also the first women’s basketball players to score over 1,000 points while at Mercer. Additionally, she set a national single-game scoring record, with 49 points scored in a regional game.

 

Dorner continued her basketball career at Rutgers University, where she earned Kodak District II Honorable Mention All-American honors in 1982. Dorner helped Rutgers win the 1982 AIAW National Championship. Following her graduation from Rutgers University, Dorner played professionally overseas in Sweden, Spain, and Italy.  Dorner has been inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame (1996) and ¾«¶«´«Ã½ Athletic Hall of Fame in 2021.

 

Elyse Eichman became ¾«¶«´«Ã½’s first women’s Soccer All-American in 1983. Eichman also became Mercer’s all-time leading goal scorer, with an unbroken record of 118 goals scored in just two years. Eichman was selected as a member of the 1982-1983 U.S Select Team, which competed in friendly matches against Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.

 

After graduating from Mercer in 1984, Eichman received a scholarship to attend Rutgers University and lead as Captain of the first Rutgers Women’s Varsity Soccer team. During her time at Rutgers, Eichman set a single-season scoring record of 15 goals – a record that has only recently been broken by Carli Lloyd.

 

In 1985, Joanne Zola became ¾«¶«´«Ã½ softball’s first All-American.  Zola was a three sport star, playing soccer, women’s basketball and softball.  After her two years at ¾«¶«´«Ã½, Zola received a scholarship to the University of Delaware, where she played soccer and softball.

 

¾«¶«´«Ã½ women’s tennis had its first All-Americans in 1998, when five players earned the honor.  The five players were Dina Agrawala, Kerry Black, Paula Binotto-Fandell, Valerie Cooney and Gina Trischitti.  These five All-Americans helped Mercer to finish as National Runner-Ups at the NJCAA National Championship in 1998.  In the fall of 1998, Vikings women’s tennis went 7-0 and were Region 19 Champions.  Both Cooney and Trischitti earned All-American honors again in 1999, the year ¾«¶«´«Ã½ women’s tennis won their first National Championship.

 

¾«¶«´«Ã½ Athletics is very proud of all of its female athletes past and present and of all of our women All-Americans.  Special congratulations to Dorner, Eichman, Zola, Agrawala, Black, Binotto-Fandell, Cooney and Trischitti, who were the first ¾«¶«´«Ã½ All-Americans in their sports.

 

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