Mercy basketball standout Leah Macy made an unofficial visit to Tennessee when the Vols beat Alabama last weekend and was in the student section for the first half.
Since she decided to play volleyball this season, Mercy sophomore Leah Macy has not been able to make quite as many unofficial basketball visits this fall as she originally planned.
She is a top 20 player in the latest ESPN rankings for her recruiting class and has 20 Division I offers including Arizona, Louisville, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi State, Oklahoma and LSU.
However, she did go to Vanderbilt, attended Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness Friday and will be at Louisville Live this weekend. But she was also in Knoxville Saturday where she got to watch the Lady Vols scrimmage and then attend the historic Alabama-Tennessee football game.
The Vols upset then No. 1 Alabama 52-49 in front of 100,000 fans and Macy got to watch many of those fans storm the field and take down the goal posts after the game ended.
“When I got the invitation to Tennessee, I thought, ‘Let’s go. You don’t often get to experience a game like this.’ I get tickets as a recruit,” she said. “It was awesome and I was really excited to be there with my family.”
“Before the game started I got to go on the field and it was so cool to see everybody (fans) from on the field. I was hearing ‘Rocky Top’ every five minutes. The first half I sat in the student section with a bunch of players and the second half I sat with the coaches and recruits in seats about four rows up (from the field).”
“It was just crazy. You could not even hear the music playing. The atmosphere was unreal. The fans really love Tennessee.”
The Tennessee women’s basketball team had an open scrimmage Saturday morning that attracted a nice crowd, too.
“With ESPN GameDay there, it was a very busy morning,” the 6-2 Macy said. “But those fans all have so much respect for anything Tennessee.”
Macy had not played volleyball until this season. Her team is 24-12 after beating Bullitt East Wednesday night to win the 24th District championship and advance to the Region 6 tourney where Mercy will be the favorite.
“I have enjoyed volleyball,” Macy said. “We hopefully will make state like I also hope we will in basketball. If we do get to state in volleyball, our state draw was not the best.”
Volleyball has given her a different sports perspective. She is not the team star and does not play all the time. She spends a lot of time cheering from the sideline, something she seldom does in basketball.
“I am okay with everything. Our roster is really big with 12 seniors and only six players can play at a time,” she said.
She already knows she will be a “one and done” in volleyball so she can concentrate on taking basketball visits next fall when she’s a junior.
“I really did not take into consideration how much we would practice (in volleyball). I have enjoyed playing and it has been a great experience. I have no regrets,” she said. “But I just love basketball and would play 24/7 if I could.”
Macy had a strong summer in AAU play that she hopes can propel her and her teammates to the state tourney. The Jaguars were 24-9 last year with a 98-96 double overtime win over eventual state champion Sacred Heart in the regular season. Mercy lost 63-50 to eventual state runner-up Bullitt East in the 6th Region title game.
Mercy will open the season Nov. 28 hosting Mercer County.
