Student-Athlete From Berlin Changes Sports Direction, Chooses UB

BERLIN, CT — Rebecca Mayer has never taken the easy way. She followed her older sister Rianne to Sport and Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford rather than go to McGee and Berlin High School. After loving soccer as a youth, she played volleyball in middle school and decided to keep playing volleyball in high school and club soccer only despite her hopes to play soccer in college.

She was carving out a stellar academic career in high school and, while the SMSA volleyball team was a perennial state and conference contender, she still hoped to play soccer in college and played at a high level with the Connecticut Football Club and played all over the country. She was contacted and in turn contacted many schools from Divisions I, II and III.

In the meantime, Mayer was named to the Class S All-State volleyball team three times and helped the Tigers to the quarterfinals, semifinals and semifinals and 62 wins in her last three seasons. She also threw in two all-conference awards in basketball as well.

Eventually, her college choices where she could play soccer and major in mechanical engineering, came down to the defending Division II national champion University of Bridgeport, Division I Iona, Brown of the Ivy League and new Division I Merrimack.

But a wildcard came in at the end and stole her services. Bridgeport, which was probably her top choice for soccer, started to talk to her and see if she had any interest in playing volleyball for the Purple Knights. She turned down and turned away many offers and coaches from volleyball programs because she was intent on soccer, but Bridgeport piqued her interest.

She visited Bridgeport again for about the 10th time and stayed with the volleyball players and watched them play and got excited. On the road home, she told her parents she thought she changed her mind and wanted to go to UB and play volleyball. Both her parents were excited for a lot of reasons, the top two being it was easier on her body and no worries about weather. Rebecca was upset her parents didn’t provide this input earlier, but her parents always let her, and her sister and brother make the major decisions.

So, Rebecca Mayer will be playing volleyball and majoring in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bridgeport this fall, joining her older sister, a softball catcher at Division II Post University, as a college student-athlete. She signed her National Letter of Intent in November.