University of Georgia Athletics
A Quick Chat With ... Megan Spencer
November 21, 2016 | Volleyball
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
Megan Spencer wears No. 3 for the Georgia volleyball team, which is fitting given that she's a triplet. She's also one of three seniors on this year's squad.
The Overland Park, Kan., native and the other seniors will play their final home match Wednesday night against Missouri at the Ramsey Center. Before wrapping up her career, Spencer paused after a recent practice to chat about being a triplet, going their separate ways, coloring books and much more.
Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: We've got Thanksgiving coming up soon, so when you think of the holiday what comes to mind with your family?
Spencer: My whole family would come to our house and we're very competitive and play games with all my cousins and my sisters, and we eat a lot of food, take a nap and then play some more games, and then eat some more food. And usually at the end of the night we'd all go to the movies.
Frierson: You're one of three, so where are your sisters in school?
Spencer: This is my redshirt year so both of my sisters graduated last year. My sister Emily followed me down here, I like to say, and she went to the Savannah College of Art and Design down in Savannah, and she's now up in Portland with adidas and their apparel design team.
Sarah went to Kansas State back home, that's about two hours from our house, and she graduated and is now in nursing school in Kansas City.
Frierson: Were they volleyball players, as well?
Spencer: Sarah and I played club volleyball together and she played in the first two years of high school, and then she didn't like it anymore and quit after our sophomore year. Emily actually played basketball and then saw my success with volleyball and she fell in love with the sport and started playing her junior year of high school. She only played her junior and senior years of high school.
Frierson: After growing up together, what was it like to disperse and go off and do your separate things?
Spencer: It was pretty weird at first because I'm used to sharing everything and having them by my side and going places together. Honestly, though, coming to college and having us be so far from away from each other, we've gotten substantially closer than I would have expected.
We talk a lot, we share what we're doing and I love hearing what they're up to, because we're all so different. I think that us being dispersed has strengthened all of our relationships, and I'm really excited for them to come here. I think they've only been to Athens once and so they're coming for my senior night and I'm really excited they're coming to see me play one last time.
Frierson: Did you all talk about going to school together at any point?
Spencer: I always knew I wanted to play volleyball in college and I didn't know where, so that was going to depend on where I got a scholarship. I think we all honestly knew we were going to go to different places.
Frierson: What's the most creative thing you do? Or what's something creative you wish you could do?
Spencer: My sister Emily is amazing at drawing and sewing and doing clothes, and I really wish I had any artistic ability — I have none — but I wish I did. I wish I was good at drawing or sketching or anything artistic.
Frierson: Coach mentioned something about a budding hip-hop career when you were a freshman?
Spencer: Oh my gosh, me and one of my greatest friends [Lauren Teknipp], who graduated two years ago, we made rap videos all the time, for pump-up videos, and it was so fun and the team loved it.
Frierson: Are they on YouTube or anything?
Spencer: I hope it's not on YouTube [laughs]. I think we made them and gave them to the coaches. One time before we made the [NCAA] tournament, coach put the first part of our scout [video] on and then it went into our video, so everyone thought we were going to start watching scout and we didn't tell anyone we'd made the video, and it was so funny.
Frierson: What's the best thing your college student-athlete experience has taught you?
Spencer: Wow, I honestly think that the person I am today is because I've been a student-athlete through my whole life, not just college. I think it's taught me discipline, time management, all the cliches like communication, as well as given me the chance to work with so many different groups of people, and figure out how we can foster that into one team goal.
Frierson: What do you do during the quiet times, away from school and volleyball?
Spencer: What quiet times? Just kidding. My mom and dad are my best friends, so I talk to them all the time, and I like to bake so I sometimes do that. I also have a coloring book and I color in it and that's fun.
But honestly,there's not that much quiet time — between school work, volleyball and trying to have a little bit of a social life.
Frierson: You're not the first person who has mention coloring books. On the football team, linebacker Lorenzo Carter has also mentioned enjoying doing coloring books as a way to relax.
Spencer: They're so therapeutic, it's awesome. If I'm stressed, it's so great.
Frierson: What's the best new thing, at least new to you, that has entered your life in 2016?
Spencer: I would say between the last year or two, it's my faith. That has been a life-changer for me. One of my teammates, Elle McCord, she's a senior this year, too, and we've been close friends for a couple of years now, and she has really brought that side and helped me to be a better person and to gear me a little bit more towards my faith.
I went to private schools K-12 and it was always there, but I never really applied it. It didn't really enter my life in 2016, but I've really seen the person I want to become this year, like all of the work on the front end is starting to pay off.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.