Editor's Note: The Marist Athletics Department is continuing to highlight its Senior Awards finalists. From April 20-May 15, a feature story will be presented on each finalist for Sportsperson of the Year.
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Previous finalists:Â Female Strength & Conditioning (April 14)Â |Â Male Strength & Conditioning (April 15)Â |Â Female Pizzani (April 16)Â |Â Male Pizzani (April 17)
POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – Megan Fergus of the Marist Volleyball team has been named a finalist for Female Sportsperson of the Year. This comes following the conclusion of a stellar four-year career for the outside hitter.
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"Megan is not only an outstanding student-athlete, but a great leader and teammate," Head Coach
Sean Byron said. "Her remarkable athletic ability is only surmounted by her unique ability to make others around her better players, better teammates, and better people. I can't think of a better candidate for this award."
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This wasn't always the plan for Fergus. Rewind about five years, and if you told her she would be a finalist for this award at Marist, Fergus would call you a flat-out liar. In high-school, as the time came to start searching for colleges, Marist was one of the last schools on Fergus' mind. Growing up in Millbrook, NY, Marist was roughly 30 minutes away from her hometown, and Fergus had absolutely no intention on attending school that close to home. Her parents would always jokingly remind her that Marist is always an option, but Fergus would immediately shut the idea down.
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Ethan Fergus, Megan's father and an assistant coach of the swimming & diving team at Marist, verified this. "We had talked about Marist, but Megan would always brush off the idea," he said. "Her reasoning was always that it was too close, and that she wanted to go away. We told her to imagine how cool it would be to have her high-school friends be able to come and watch her play, and that they would never get that chance if she went away. We promised her that we would give her some space…other than at volleyball games. We did everything we could do to convince her to not let being close to home stop her from going to a school if she loved it."
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Turns out, she loved it. Things began to change when Lauren Amundson, the Head Coach of the volleyball team from 2015-18, began recruiting Fergus to Marist. "When we first saw Megan play, I had actually sent my assistant
Ali Berens to watch another player in her club," Amundson said. "Ali called me mid-practice excited about an athlete that was "jumping out of the gym" that we needed to learn more about. That player, obviously being Megan. Within weeks we had seen her play in a high school match, met her parents, and showed her around campus. It seemed like she loved Marist, but the fear was always that Marist was too close to home for her. Megan said that since she was young, she had sworn off Marist."
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What ended up being the deciding factor for Fergus that brought her to Poughkeepsie was the first time she met who would end up being her future teammates. "As soon as I met the people that are now my second family, I felt at home," Fergus said. "I was absolutely shocked by how much overwhelming love and support these girls showed me when I was essentially just a stranger to them. What eventually changed my mind about going to school so close to home was that, well, the girls made Marist feel like it WAS home."
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And the rest is history.
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Her freshman year was one for the ages, as she led the team with 294 kills and 325.5 points as a rookie, while finishing third on the team with 53 total blocks. She won four Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week awards on her way to being crowned MAAC Rookie of the Year. She was also named a member of the All-MAAC Second Team.
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Flash forward to 2019 and her senior season, and Fergus started the fourth and final chapter of her journey to Red Fox stardom. She began the year by being crowned the South Bay Battle MVP, leading the Red Foxes to the tournament championship, which was the first in-season championship for the team in over four years. Â
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On October 9 against Quinnipiac, Fergus became the 9th plater in program history to reach the 1,000 career kills milestone.
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Her incredible 2019 season culminated in 450 kills, which was the second-highest total of kills in a single season in program history. She won four MAAC Player of the Week awards en route to being named to the All-MAAC First Team.
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For her career. Fergus tallied 1,244 kills, which ranks third on the Red Foxes' all-time list. She was also high on the program's all-time attacks list, ranking fourth with 3,301 attacks in her career. Fergus was no slouch on defense either, as she finished her career with 294 total blocks which was good for seventh on the all-time list. In 2019, Fergus was named to CoSIDA Academic All-District, and was a three-time member of the MAAC All-Academic Team in her career.
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That career came to an end in a blaze of glory. The Red Foxes matched up against #1 Fairfield in the MAAC Championship semifinals, a Stags team that had only lost multiple SETS to MAAC opponents once the entire season. Fergus left it all on the court, smacking 28 kills all while collecting 11 digs for a double-double. She even added four total blocks. The 28 kills not only marked a career-high, but also tied a program record for the most kills in a single match. Unfortunately, Marist was defeated in a five-set thriller by the eventual MAAC Champion Stags, concluding what was an incredible season.
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It wasn't about personal success or records for Fergus, however. Throughout the season, the question was posed to her many teams about how it felt to have achieved certain milestones and achievements, but her answer was always the same. "All I care about is winning as a team," Fergus would say. "I would trade every record I have here for a MAAC Championship in a HEARTBEAT."
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"Some athletes play for records and accolades, but Megan played to win,"
Ethan Fergus said.  "She didn't try to obtain records, they were just a result of her doing everything she possibly could to help her team win. Every time she lost she was so upset. I would try to cheer her and up and tell her she played well, and her response would be 'that doesn't matter, we lost.'  When she played her last game, and it was probably the best game of her life, she couldn't be more upset.  You see, all she ever really wanted to do was to help bring a championship to Marist and go to the NCAA tournament. Nothing else mattered, nothing else was the goal."
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In the end, sadly, Marist wasn't able to secure a MAAC Championship during Fergus' career, but her impact and legacy will not be forgotten. "When I was training to go to college my senior year of high school, I attended private lessons," Fergus said. "My coach always told me to write my goals on the mirror so I see them every day and work to achieve them. My number one goal, that I looked at every single day, was 'be unforgettable."Â
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It is safe to say, Fergus has achieved that goal.
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Head Coach
Sean Byron: "Megan is one of the best pure athletes to ever come through Marist and our volleyball program. "She matured into a force nationally with her ability to attack and block.  We utilized her out of the back row this year and she truly expanded her skill sets with a good serve and backcourt defense. We will miss Megan both on and off the court.
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Former Head Coach Lauren Amundson: "Megan was a gymnast who picked up volleyball later than most Division I athletes. She was still fairly new to the game, and developing her fundamental skills along with her Volleyball IQ when she first started. She is clearly physically gifted, and is a young woman who is determined, competitive, and extremely hard working. Add these qualities to her engaging personality and big laugh, she is an athlete you want to work with. She can make a long-term impact on the success of a program"
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Father/Assistant Swimming & Diving Coach
Ethan Fergus: "Working for Marist has been nothing but incredible. However, prior to me accepting the job, I knew that I would have to run it by Megan. When she was deciding whether or not to go to Marist, we made a promise to her not infringe on her college experience. When I told her about the job opportunity, she may have been more excited than me!  The job has given me so many opportunities to see Megan since she spent a great deal of time at McCann.  It's an opportunity that most parents never receive, and I feel truly blessed. (my wife) Jen and I only missed a single game of hers, and we would never have been able to do that if she would have gone away to college. We are truly thankful Megan chose Marist, as we got to experience the entirety of her amazing career."
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Best Friend/Teammate
Jocelyn Gorman: "Megan is literally the hardest working and most competitive person I have ever played with. Megan was my preseason roommate freshman year, and I remember being so scared of her because she was so competitive. She even made me during our first red/white scrimmage. You will never see Megan walk into the gym and go less than 100%, and seeing her work hard is what pushes the rest of our team to work hard. She will do whatever it takes to win, and that is what makes her an amazing competitor. As a friend, Meg is someone I can trust with my life. She is so loyal, and is always willing to listen and give me honest advice, even when I don't want to hear it, and honestly, that is why she is my best friend."Â Â Â
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When asked if she would like to give some parting words of wisdom to the incoming freshman class, this is what Fergus had to say: "I have two words I would like to say to the incoming freshman class. Embrace it. Embrace every second of it, because I PROMISE you, it goes by in the blink of an eye. I was you, reading this as an incoming freshman and thinking 'how fast could it really go?' As I was sitting through a lecture for over an hour, I thought to myself 'Everyone lied this is DRAGGING on, I just want to be a senior already.' And then, before I knew it, I was a graduating senior who would do or give absolutely anything in the world to go back. So, all the 8 a.m. classes, the 6 a.m. conditionings and lifts, the ice baths, and the sunny days with your friends on the green: embrace it all. In the blink of an eye the best four years of your life will have come to a close and you will do anything to go back."
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