Hall of Fame
Merchant-Spagnoletti was the top field hockey and lacrosse player in the late 1970's and early 1980's at Oneonta. During her career in field hockey she helped lead the program to a 44-15-0 record and two straight trips to the American Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) National Tournament. The 1979 team won the New York State (NYS) championship, the Eastern AIAW championship and placed 3rd at the AIAW Division III National Tournament.
The 1980 squad was 2nd at both the NYS and EAIAW tournaments and finished 7th at the AIAW Div. III championships. At the time of her graduation Merchant-Spagnoletti was the career leader in goals and still remains in the top ten for the field hockey program. In lacrosse she is ranked in the top twenty all time in career scoring.
Merchant-Spagnoletti, a native of Watertown, N.Y., earned her bachelor's in biology while minoring in chemistry from Oneonta. After spending one year in Cooperstown working for Bassett Hospital in the radiology department she moved to Winston-Salem, N.C. While there, she spent two years at the Bowman-Gray School of Medicine and received a physician's assistant (PA) certificate. From 1984 to 1994 she lived in Melbourne, Fla. where she worked for a family practice as a PA and currently is doing the same in Elkin, N.C.
