ELON, N.C. – This past Sunday, it wasn't just the women on the court shining bright. It was also the 16 women behind the scenes for the Elon Sports Vision broadcast who ushered in a new Elon take on a FOX Sports tradition.

This year, National Women & Girls in Sports Day falls on Feb. 7, but with Elon Sports Vision coordinating producer Claire Geary at the masthead for Elon's Feb. 4 game against Campbell, the Elon women's basketball broadcast was staffed entirely by female students.

For the on-air side, play-by-play announcer Katie Bennert '24, WSOE's first-ever female sports director, led the way along with Grace Stetler '26 on color commentary and Lizzie Kuebler '25 reporting from the sideline. 

Bennert has been a fixture in the ESV crew since arriving on campus four years ago. She was visibly a bit emotional when she walked into the control room and saw only women. She noted how when she started as a freshman, she was often the only female in the control room, and she has been inspired by seeing the empowerment of female students not only in ESV, but in Elon athletics as a whole.

"I feel like there are a lot of people who worked very hard to get us to this point and I love that I can say I was the first woman to do a lot of things here," Bennert said when asked what Women in Sports Day means to her. "But I'm also so happy that I am now joined by so many other women at my side and that I'm not the only woman to do things anymore."

Geary stated that picking her dream team in the control room is just as important as picking on-air talent. One of these was student-athlete Mia Zebley, who is a freshman on Elon's lacrosse team and was the graphics operator for the all-female broadcast.

For Zebley, having an all-female production crew behind the scenes was just as meaningful as having all women on-air. 

"I think it's just such a great thing to see," Zebley said. "Playing sports, you sometimes feel like women aren't shown as much. But especially having people all behind-the-scenes wanting the success of women and all working together to put on these great shows is just a great thing to see." 

While Bennert knows there is still a long way to go, she is proud to have helped forge a path for women in sports at Elon and is excited to see how the industry continues to evolve for women in the future. 

"It is so much more important that we have representation and we have tons of women in this space, because women have earned their right to be here," Bennert said. "We have a lot more to do to get it equal but this is a day that makes it 10 times closer to making sure everybody has an opportunity in sports."

Full Broadcast Crew
Abby Selikoff - Director
Claire Geary - Producer
Katie Bennert - Play-by-Play
Grace Stetler - Color Analyst
Lizzie Kuebler - Sideline Reporter
Annie Thyfault - Replay 1
Landrey Messick - Replay 2
Grace Mills - Audio
Lauren Winslow - Camera 1
Katelyn Miller - Camera 2
Ella Smith - Camera 3
Michaela Williams - Camera 4
Mia Zebley - Font Operator
Ellie Reasbeck - Bug Operator
Ilana Boyer - Utility
Abby Waeltz - Utility
 

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'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.

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