They were on the bus when they got the call. For the first time in nearly a year, they were able to play.
The last season for the UCLA women’s volleyball team, which proved to be disappointing after a missed NCAA championship qualification, can be defined by injuries early in the season. As can the first two years of redshirt sophomore outside hitter Haley Lawless’ career with the Bruins.
In November of her freshman year, Lawless tore her labrum in her right shoulder while playing and had surgery. Then, in October of last season, after having returned to the game for only six weeks, Lawless came down wrong from a jump and tore her meniscus and ACL, and sprained her MCL on her left leg. Once again, she would be benched for the entirety of the season, and endure surgery three weeks later.
She wasn’t alone.
Senior setter Megan Moenoa had been experiencing back pain from the start of the season last season, but after a back scan, found she had two herniated discs in her lower back. While epidural injections helped her finish out the 2013 season, post-season brought back surgery and a lot of subsequent rehabilitation.
“With any injury or any time not participating in drills, you feel very secluded,” Lawless said. “A lot of the practices with a fresh injury you’ll be sitting in the corner of the gym, so you’ll be at practice, and for the most part many people won’t notice that you might feel secluded, but it feels like you’re just watching. It’s kind of a weird, surreal type of thing.”
Although their team and their coaches missed them on the court, long-time friends Lawless and Moenoa turned to each other for support throughout the entire rehabilitation process, so neither was forced to face the months of physical therapy alone.
For two months the girls sat in the southwest corner of Pardee Gym, talking and even doing reps together as they watched their teammates play together on the court.
“We laugh about it all the time because it sucks,” Moenoa said. “No one wants to be in that position, but it has helped both of us having someone who knows how mentally tough it is more than anything, and having someone you know understand when you’re having a bad day and how to deal with you.”
The bus was halfway between UCLA and Malibu when the friends were cleared for play. The Bruins were to host the University of Arizona, and just several hours later, both girls would end up stepping onto the court in their blue-lettered jerseys for the first time all season.
“It was kind of a surreal thing,” Moenoa said. “When you’re out for so long, you don’t really believe it until you see it. We were both obviously really happy and emotional.”
Now recovered from surgeries and back in the game, the girls face the equally daunting task of redefining their roles on a team they haven’t played with in over two months.
“Trying to find that role again two months later after everyone else has already found out who they are and what they bring to the team is hard.” Moenoa said. “It’s just kind of meshing with the team, and they’ve already been together for two months. That, and finding our groove, where we fit in to the puzzle.”
But they said they’re still discovering how they fit in with their team as they move together from the corner of the practice court to regaining a more central role on the team.
And although Lawless said her body is now eager to take the court alongside the rest of her team, the challenge is regaining on-court trust and communication not only with her other teammates, but also with herself.
For the self-proclaimed control freak, being told she couldn’t play by her own body was a frustrating thing to wrap her mind around, and although she is now cleared to play, working through new moves and dives slower than her teammates and taking a day off when her knee is swollen isn’t any less frustrating.
“There’s a frustration level of once you’re healthy enough to go it’s amazing, but at the same time, every now and then you’re going to have to limit the stuff you’re doing,” said coach Michael Sealy. “So I think sometimes they’ll feel it’s going backwards when it is just two steps forward and one step back.”
It was with this careful consideration Lawless entered the game in the last set against Arizona. After watching her partner-in-recovery Moenoa score eight assists and four digs in one set, Lawless was ready to take her spot on the court.
“I took my first swing, and I got a kill. I remember turning around and just being overjoyed. It was a little gnarly,” she said.
“I was just like ‘Yes! I can do it!'”