UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Eleri MacKay grew up in a suburb outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin called Brookfield with her brother, Spencer, twin sister, Delani, and parents, Kevin and Kristin.
Her life has revolved around hockey ever since she can remember.
MacKay's father played hockey through high school and her mother has always known how to skate. Since her parents had experience on the ice, they wanted their kids to learn the basics.
"He had always wanted all of us, my brother, sister and I, to at least be able to skate," MacKay said.
After learning to skate from their parents, MacKay and her siblings all began doing mini-mite hockey, entry level hockey for kids. From there they all fell in love with the sport.
As she got older, her family would consistently watch NHL games and talk about them while on the living room couch. Overall, MacKay's family is very hockey oriented, and she attributes her hockey IQ to her family's ability to talk about all things hockey.
"It was a cool family experience, to all be involved in the game," MacKay said.
Over time MacKay started traveling more for youth tournaments to states like Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota. She recalled the hotels, pizza parties, pool hangouts and more that went along with being involved in hockey tournaments.
"When I think about how fun college hockey is, I always look back on that because it definitely grew my love for the sport," MacKay said.
During her high school years, MacKay attended a school in Vermont called the North American Hockey Academy (NAHA), which has since been moved and is now based out of Boston. It is an all-girls hockey school, and she only attended it during the season.
Both MacKay and her sister attended NAHA–it was easier for their parents to send them together.
"For high school it was never really a question," MacKay said. "We were always going to do that together."
During this time, the recruiting process for collegiate hockey was in full swing. MacKay and her sister went on all of their recruiting visits together. They went on about 10 visits and were both interested in every school they saw.
"At each college visit there was a point when we would go into the coach's office and have a discussion about where we were in the process, the next steps and the big-ticket question," MacKay said.
The big-ticket question always was: Are you going to go to college together? Are you a package deal?
She said there was never a conversation that they had with each other about if they wanted to play with each other at the collegiate level.
"It was always subconscious," MacKay said. "We were going to go play in college together."
While discussing the trips that they went on together, they did have some differing opinions. Sometimes they focused on different aspects of the school or hockey program. However, MacKay said this helped them when making a decision because one sister was honest about an aspect when the other wanted to look past it.
Ultimately, they decided to attend and play for Colgate University.
"We played with each other about 95% of the time," MacKay said. "My sister played as a center, and I was a wing."
MacKay said that there were many benefits to playing with her sister in college, one being because the pace of the game was a lot faster. Being able to have at least one person on the ice that knew what the other was thinking at all times, MacKay explained, was helpful.
This ability positively impacted the way that they could produce points together on the ice, which are some of MacKay's favorite hockey moments with her sister at Colgate.
"Just that pass from me to her or from her to me and then putting it in the back of the net was really cool," MacKay said. "The pictures that would come from that were awesome."
Throughout her time at Colgate, MacKay experienced a lot on her own that helped her become a better student, player and person. She had to find her role on the ice and on the team. This pushed MacKay to be more of a well-rounded player.
"I had to find what I was going to bring to the table every day to earn a spot on the ice consistently," MacKay said.
After four years of playing with each other in college at Colgate, MacKay and her sister learned they had a fifth year of eligibility. That meant that there was a decision to be made concerning if and where MacKay and her sister would play.
"When we found out we had a fifth year we knew that it was time to try something new and do something without each other," MacKay said.
She chose to transfer to Penn State, while her sister chose to attend Sacred Heart.
MacKay wanted to get a master's degree in business and chose Penn State because of its well-respected and accredited business school. In addition to the academic components of transferring, she wanted to go to a school where she would make an immediate impact.
"Penn State is an up-and-coming program with a lot of potential that I am excited to be on," MacKay said.
She is focused on doing the things she loves about hockey on a daily basis, smiling and having fun with her teammates. While she has been playing hockey with her sister by her side most of her life, she plans to enjoy this new chapter while making an impact during her time here at Penn State.
"It is definitely a new experience being here without her and I'm sure she feels that same way," MacKay said. "But it's exciting nonetheless."