Emily BuergerWomen’s lacrosse goalie Joslyn Hayes, a senior business administration major, hurt her knee during the team’s first game of the season against Ursinus on March 17.
“There were five minutes left in the second half and we were tied 12-12. A girl was rolling the crease and I was playing stick to stick, but I must have twisted my knee a wrong way because I heard it crack,” Hayes said.
“I also got pushed from behind after it happened. I ended up playing in six minutes of overtime too.”
Unaware of the severity of her injury, Hayes said that she was “really depressed about it for about two weeks” until she was told what she had to undergo to repair her knee.
After getting an MRI to find out what had actually happened to Hayes during the game, she was told that she tore both her ACL and meniscus.
Hayes was scheduled to have knee surgery on April 4th. While her recovery will take eight weeks of physical therapy, Hayes will be able to do it through Cabrini’s trainers.
Hayes’ doctor, however, told her that she could only return to playing lacrosse in about four to six months and unfortunately by that time, Hayes will have already graduated.
“I won’t be able to play the rest of the season, which pretty much sucks since this was my last year to play,” Hayes said.
Hayes, who has been playing lacrosse for almost 10 years now, said that the hardest part about her injury is not being able to enjoy her time with her teammates out on the field.
Despite Hayes’ dismay, she has complete faith in freshman Kate Schmid who will be taking her place as the team’s goalie.
“She is a very talented player and I am so proud of her for being able to step up and take control in goal,” Hayes said. “I appreciate that she still will listen to me during the game for any pointers or advice on what the defense is doing or not doing.”
Schmid, while having five years of experience in lacrosse, admits to being nervous when she found out that she would be taking Hayes’ place.
“I knew I had some big shoes to fill,” Schmid said. ” I felt really bad when she got hurt because she’s a great player and she deserved to have a good senior year.”
Despite her injury, Hayes was able to defend a good seven shots from the opposing team during the game.
Schmid said that she’s putting in her hard work at practice and staying in shape in order to “be ready for anything.”
“I like to think that my [current] position has changed into another assistant coach since I yell as much as the other coaches on the sidelines,” Hayes said.
Schmid agreed saying that even though “she’s not playing, she’s still a big part of the team.”
Looking to find something positive in the mess that caused Hayes to now watch the games from the sidelines, Hayes finds herself cheering for her teammates more than ever.
“I do still have faith in my team to have a very good season and even though I am not playing anymore, I am still a part of the team and we still have a large portion of the season to finish and a lot of games to go all out for.”
