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Despite injuries, the women’s varsity soccer team’s upperclassmen hope to win a State title

RUNNING TO VICTORY: Running during practice, women’s varsity soccer team players and juniors Shae Desmond and Amanda Babbin train, hoping that their rigorous conditioning and practices will help them win a State title. Senior Alexis Owens said that after last year, the team practiced hard because they wanted the championship ring, in spite of all the injuries. ELIZABETH TRANCIK / PHOTO

This year more than others, the pressure is on even higher for the women’s soccer team and its seniors hoping to win a State title. For the seniors, they could be the only group of upperclassmen to graduate without a title, and with only three regular season games left, the team must now look ahead to the State tournament which stands in their way to a championship. But to get there, the team faces very tough Sectional play and injuries which will make it even more difficult for the team to achieve its State title goals.Alexis Owens, varsity player and senior, has been out with an injury after she got hurt during the first 15 seconds of the first game of the season against Zionsville. According to Owens, she collided with another player, and when she tried to get up and walk it off, she heard a crack. Her leg was broken and that meant she would be out of play for a large portion of her senior season.

“It’s common. People get injured a lot, but they usually come back (to play),” Owens said.

But according to Head Coach Frank Dixon, Owens’s injury is very rare, even in a sport he said he believes is comparable to football for women. ACL injuries and pulled muscles are both very common, he said, along with bumps and bruises from getting knocked down during play, but not broken limbs.

“(Owen’s injury) was kind of weird (on) how it happened. She went in for a tackle and tried to stand up and couldn’t walk,” Taylor Cornwell, varsity player and senior, said. Cornwell injured her groin during warm-ups for the North Central game. She was out for two practices, but returned for the Cathedral game.

According to Owens, she has about two or three more weeks until she will be able to get back to playing soccer. For the duration of her injury, Owens said she has been trying to stay in shape for her varsity role by riding an auxiliary bike, working her abdominal muscles through exercises and lifting weights with her upper body.

“I am a little (worried about coming back to play), but as soon as I can show them I’m back again, it won’t be a problem,” Owens said.

Along with Owens and Cornwell, several other varsity players became injured during the season. Juniors Paige “Paigey” Covington sprained her ankle, Alexis Ardaiolo hurt her ACL and Katelyn Strout suffered from a bi-muscle tear.

To try to stay in top shape, injured players participate in rehab designed to challenge them with whatever they can physically handle by team trainer Dawn Robertson. According to Dixon, players can lose so much training in a short time from injury, and it takes time for them to get back to their full potential. Players nursing injuries are encouraged to still attend all the practices and to cheer on their teammates during games when they do not have physical therapy.

“(For my groin injury), I just went in to the trainer everyday after school and iced it and stretched it. I still have to ice it after practice,” Cornwell said.

According to Kathleen Hanni, varsity co-captain and senior, it usually takes a couple of practices or even participating in an actual game for returning players to get back into the swing of things.

As the seniors on the women’s team get closer and closer to the State tournament and their last chance at bringing home the title, Hanni said she believe the injuries will not affect the team’s overall performance. According to Hanni, there are 22 people on the roster for the varsity squad, which provides the team with a wealth of potential replacement players. She said she believes the depth of the team’s back-ups can help to stop any negative effects from losses of teammates to injuries.

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