‘She loved the game’: Remembering Mercer volleyball’s Ali Waldon

The Mercer community this week mourned the loss of student and volleyball player Aliyah Waldon, who died Sunday after battling bone cancer for more than a year.

She was 19 years old.

“Please keep us in your prayers as we navigate through this difficult time,” Waldon’s mother wrote on a GoFundMe page dedicated to paying for Waldon’s treatment. “Ali would not want us to be sad, she was not amongst the ordinary, she was the funniest, happiest, most loving person I’ve ever known and I was blessed to be her mom! So, to honor her memory please feel free to share a funny pic or memory or story of Ali today!”

Waldon arrived at Mercer in 2023 and was an immediate contributor for the volleyball team, earning All-Southern Conference honors as a freshman and finishing with 210 points on 175 kills. She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, before the 2024 season when she got an MRI for what she thought was a minor injury, according to the GoFundMe.

Waldon missed the season and returned to her hometown of Odessa, Florida, to receive treatment. The team wore yellow ribbons and wore warmup jerseys with the slogan “I fight” on them during their 2024 season, which turned out to be a historic one in which Mercer won the regular season Southern Conference championship.

Waldon was part of a key group for the Bears that arrived under previous head coach Chad Sutton, but current head coach Steve Benson still got to know one of the team’s brightest players.

“She loved the game. That’s what people should know about her,” Benson said. “The girls are being strong right now. A lot of them knew her really well. It’s hard.”

Benson met Waldon and her mother in Orlando during a tournament, he told The Melody, getting updates on her treatment and her life. Even though she was fighting cancer by then, Waldon was as passionate about volleyball as ever, he said.

“I know from the girls that she was a great teammate. Being around the game was an outlet … it was a form of therapy for her. Even being around it later was a way to get away from her illness,” Benson said. “Volleyball is a tight-knit community, and she loved that and wanted to be around the game as much as possible.”

That tight-knit community has shown lots of love to Waldon’s family since her diagnosis. The broadcasters of a tournament at UCF honored her three days ago, and teams at the tournament all wore yellow ribbons. The GoFundMe to pay for her treatment has raised nearly $103,000 as of Tuesday, with many donations streaming in this week.

“It means the world,” Benson said. “It also helps raise awareness of cancer taking people away and helps with figuring out this awful disease. It’s touched my life personally. It’s just tough to lose people this way. She was such a light. It hurts.”

Mercer volleyball posted to social media announcing Waldon’s death Monday, where students, fans, players from different teams and more left yellow heart emojis and other messages in her memory.

“I will play for her,” former Mercer star Skye Ekes, now at Florida State, commented under the post. “Love you Ali girl you are such a light to this world.”Mercer will have moments of silence to remember Waldon during its upcoming athletic events, and the volleyball team will continue wearing the yellow ribbons, The Mercer Cluster reported.