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It was Elon men’s soccer redshirt junior Ryan Manna’s sophomore year, and the team had recently played the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The following day, the team had a light training session, and that’s when he heard it. Manna’s teammate went in for a tackle, but rather than acquiring the ball, he hit Manna’s knee, and Manna heard the all-too-familiar pop. Manna had torn his ACL, forcing him to undergo his third major knee surgery in his soccer career. It took a year for Manna to fully recover, and the rehab process took a mental toll on him. Manna said it’s just a different feeling when you are on the sideline, standing there, uninvolved...
Photo courtesy of Elon Athletics
When recalling his favorite memory of playing for Elon University Men’s Tennis Coach, Michael Leonard, senior Ben Zipay gave an unexpected answer. His favorite memory of Leonard, who is retiring after 20 years of coaching at Elon following the 2024 season, was actually during a 2022 match he lost. “I was playing this guy from Miami University who was just destroying me,” Zipay said. “In my mind, I'm like, ‘This guy's just better than me.’’’ However, Leonard would refuse to allow Zipay to go out like that. He came onto the court where Zipay was trying to hold off the superior opponent, and despite the match seemingly out of reach, Leonard stayed with Zipay for the whole match, giving him advice the entire time...
Photo by Miles Hayford
As a private institution, specifics about Elon University’s athletic budget aren’t public; However, the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act — passed in 1994 — requires universities and colleges to make gender equity information about their athletic programs available. This is to give prospective students a chance to judge a school’s ability to have equitable opportunities for both its male and female student-athletes. As a result of this, it is possible to analyze Elon’s athletic budget from a broad perspective. According to Elon professor of sport management Alex Traugutt, Elon’s athletic budget is in a good place right now due to their spending and return on investment. “Spending and our ROI seems to be on par with what other institutions at this kind of level do. There isn't anything that when I look at it, I think to myself, ‘Boy, we're doing something wrong here,’’’ Traugutt said...
In a battle between former top 25 team Elon University men’s soccer and the No. 9 ranked Duke University Blue Devils on Oct. 8, Duke prevailed 2-1. The first half witnessed a brutal tug-of-war between Duke and Elon, with each exchanging possession to capture the opening score of the night. It was a fast, aggressive sequence of events that kickstarted the game. Players on both sides streaked up and down the field, making for a very draining and intensive opening 10 minutes. A couple of early shots by redshirt junior Ryan Manna and a classic, curving free kick shot by senior Scott Vatne looked promising, but a stonewall Duke defense proved to be difficult to score on.
Elon, who typically employs a more methodical approach to offense that scores off occasional spurts of offense, seemed to be lost for the beginning. The Phoenix struggled to keep up with Duke’s speedy offense that moved rapidly up and down the field...
Photo by Joseph Navin
Photo by Charlotte Pfabe
When Elon University men’s basketball head coach Billy Taylor arrived at Purcell Pavilion for the team’s Nov. 22 matchup against Notre Dame, he led the team through the back garage door — walking through the tunnel like all visiting teams do when they come to play the Fighting Irish. But as Taylor walked through the tunnel, he noticed his old locker room on his right — the locker room that had held his jersey, shoes and all the gear he needed for the four years he spent playing for the Irish in the 1990s. As Taylor stepped onto the familiar court, he took care to notice the features that had been added since 1995. As he spied the chair-back seating, the jumbotron and the new floor, he reflected on how far Notre Dame’s program has come since he was a team captain 30 years ago...
Photo courtesy of Elon Athletics
North Carolina’s general election for governor is a battle between contrasts. Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will face off against Attorney General Josh Stein on Nov. 5, along with Libertarian Mike Ross, Green Party’s Wayne Turner and Constitution Party’s Vinny Smith. Ross, Smith and Turner are all polling at 3% or less, according to data from Sept. 25 to 29 in a Quinnipiac University poll.
The two main candidates disagree on a number of issues.
One of Josh Stein’s main running points is focusing on making sure that the economy works for everyone. Stein has promised to lower costs, raise the minimum wage and cut taxes for working families. Stein plans to do this through the Working Families Tax Cut that he has proposed...
ENN File Photo
RALEIGH - As of 8:56 p.m., AP News has called North Carolina’s governor race in favor of Democratic candidate and Attorney General Josh Stein. With 23% of the votes counted, Stein has a 52.7% lead. Robinson has 42.6% of the vote. After the results came in, Gov. Roy Cooper introduced Stein onto the main stage. Stein began by thanking his supporters. As he walked onto the stage, the crowd erupted into applause and its energy reverberated across the room. “Tonight, the people of North Carolina resoundingly embraced a vision that’s optimistic, forward-looking and welcoming,” Stein said during the event. “A vision that’s about creating opportunities for every North Carolinian. We chose hope over hate. Competence over chaos. Decency over division. That’s who we are as North Carolinians...”
Photo by Miles Hayford
The National Collegiate Athletic Association and the major athletic conferences agreed upon a historic $2.8 billion settlement of three federal antitrust cases May 23, paving the way for student-athletes to be paid directly. The NCAA and the Power Five conferences — otherwise known as the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference and Southeastern Conference — have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit by former college athletes. The NCAA and its conferences within Division I will pay $2.8 billion in damages over 10 years to both former and current athletes. They also agreed to a revenue-sharing plan, which allows each Power Five school to share up to roughly $20 million per year with its athletes. This means schools can pay athletes directly for the first time in the NCAA’s 120-year history...
Photo by Erin Martin
Matthew Downing, the starting quarterback for Elon University’s football team, said going into his seventh year has created a lot of doubt from others, but he remains steadfast in his decision to keep coming back to football.
“People say all the time, ‘You're 24, give it up,’” Downing said. “I just don't see it that way. People haven’t walked in my shoes and people don't understand what I've been through to get here.” Downing’s seven year college football journey is not normal by any means. College football quarterbacks typically only get four years of eligibility. But Downing was plagued by a lack of playing time, injuries and playing through COVID-19. All three roadblocks provided a path for the NCAA to grant Downing more years of eligibility as his college career went on...
ENN File Photo
North Carolina lawmakers overrode Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act with the power of the Republican supermajority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The new law went into effect at the start of the academic year and bans “students of the male sex” from playing on all “athletic teams designated for females, women or girls.” This includes teams at the middle school, high school, intramural and collegiate level...
Photo by Erin Martin
Multimedia
Elon University defeats William & Mary 2-1
This is a package I did for Elon New Network's weekly live show, ENN Tonight. I covered the Elon men's soccer team's 2-1 victory over William & Mary on Oct. 5.
Price of play: Impact of injury on Elon University athletes
This is a package I did for Elon New Network's weekly live show, ENN Tonight. I converted my story for the Pendulum listed above into a video package.
Why Go To Florida? | The Communications Fellows Florida Trip ‘24
A perk of being an Elon University Communications Fellow is that I was given the opportunity to go to Florida for 10 days in my freshman year to visit various communications businesses and network along the way. Afterwards, two of my classmates and I created a video advertisement as a conclusion of the trip. We centered our advertisement’s campaign around the contrast between business and entertainment in Florida. Through our advertisement, we attempted to convince the audience that Florida was the perfect place to be for a communications professional due to the unique environment that thrives in both professional and fun settings.
Basketball Special Edition
During my time as Sports Editor at Elon News Network, I oversaw the creation of the Pendulum's Basketball Special Edition. I helped plan the edition months in advance, helped coordinate visuals, assign stories, wrote some stories, and gave input on the design of the issue. The preview contained nine stories and eight pages of content, including season previews, features, and schedules.
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Fall Sports Preview
During my time as Sports Editor at Elon News Network, I oversaw the creation of the Pendulum's special Fall Sports Preview edition. I helped plan the edition months in advance, helped coordinate visuals, assign stories, wrote some stories, and gave input on the design of the issue. The preview contained nine stories and eight pages of content, including season previews, features, and schedules.
