On the eve of Elizabeth Spencer McKenzie’s final career match for Barton College, a reporter for the Wilson Times asked women’s soccer head coach Todd Bailess if he thought McKenzie would one day be selected to the Barton College Athletic Hall of Fame.

Bailess was quoted as saying, “Well, I can’t speak for the committee, but she’s in that category of one of the best to ever wear a Barton uniform.”

He can now answer that question “yes” with absolute certainty, as McKenzie was enshrined as part of the Class of 2015.

For Bailess, a Hall of Fame member himself, there was never any doubt about her worthiness.

McKenzie had earned all-conference and all-region recognition all four seasons, and had been honored as the 2003 Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference Player of the Year after ranking second nationally in assists per game. She had helped the Lady Bulldogs to their two best seasons in school history, their highest national ranking ever (ninth) and their only regional finals appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

“I can say that she is not only one of the best soccer players and overall athletes to ever step foot on the Barton College campus, but she is an even better person,” Bailess shared recently. “She was loved by her teammates, and she set the standard for the women’s soccer program from day one, which was excellence. She’s a person of high character, she never complained, she put her teammates before herself, and she made everyone around her better, including myself. For me, it was an honor to have coached her.”

McKenzie’s collegiate performance was hardly surprising. She had come to Barton as a highly decorated prep player, one of the best ever produced locally. Her foundation had been set while playing as a youth on a team established by her dad, Lee.

“Dad started one of the first girls travel/classic soccer teams in Wilson a long, long time ago,” McKenzie said. “Mike Petty, who was a former head coach at Hunt High School, took the job as our coach that first year and continued with it for a few years. That’s how we started. We built a team in Wilson with a bunch of girls who just really wanted to play soccer and loved it.”

She later played for travel/classic teams in Raleigh, then under the valuable guidance of coach Toni Veracchi at nearby Fike High School. By the time she was ready to make a decision on college, McKenzie had developed the talent to compete at the NCAA Division I level.

But she said Barton was the only choice for her.

“There was never any thought of playing elsewhere,” McKenzie said. “I’m a homebody. I enjoy being near my family. I was very fortunate to have a college in my hometown where I could play soccer. There were opportunities other places, but the decision for me was very easy.”

She played her first season under head coach Scott Ginn, whom she had known for years through attending Barton’s summer soccer camps. Bailess, who was a volunteer assistant that year, remembers the immediate impact she had – eight goals and five assists as BC went 7-3-1 in the league. McKenzie remembers just trying to fit in.

“I remember coming in as a freshman, uncertain of what college is all about, meeting new people, girls that were four years older than me and their expectations for the game,” she said. “I was coming in trying to meet those expectations while trying to meet my own internal expectations of being the best I can be.”

Those two different views of her first season are telling, for even as she became ever more dominant on the field, she did so with a team-first focus.

In her junior season, after suffering a severely sprained ankle that cost her several games, “I wasn’t able to support my team on the field, but I think I was a heck of a good cheerleader out there trying to encourage the girls to play and do the best they could do,” she said.

Bailess said McKenzie “did everything she could do to try and rehabilitate herself for the NCAA regional. I know she wasn’t 100 percent but she still played against North Florida. We obviously weren’t successful, but the game was a lot closer (2-1) because she was on the field.”

In her senior year, even after three all-region seasons playing striker, she moved to the center midfield position “because that’s where the team needed her at the time,” Bailess said. “She accepted that role and did very well with it.”

Her selflessness was further reflected in the 17 assists she handed out that final season.

“Over the four years that I was there, my main goal was to try and help improve the team,” McKenzie said. “I tried to help make us as successful as we could be.”

She did that with a Hall of Fame performance – even if she still won’t take credit for it.

“I’m honored to be able to achieve this award, because it’s not really an individual one,” McKenzie said. “It’s more reflective of the support of my parents growing up and the team that I was on during my four years here. The award is not only for me, but for my parents and everybody on the team for those four years.”