Going into 2001, Lindsay Greco was feeling pretty good about the
development of her soccer game.
Scoring to put UCLA up 1-0 over North Carolina in the 2000 NCAA
championship game highlighted her freshman campaign. Although the
Bruins lost the game 2-1, Greco took solace in the fact that she
could come back in 2001 with a senior-laden team and make yet
another NCAA title run.
She wound up finishing fourth on the team for the number of
goals scored; it was one of the most promising freshmen seasons in
the Pac-10.
Four games into her sophomore year, Greco was striking with a
vengeance, leading the nation with six goals scored.
It was just two shy of what she had scored in the whole of her
freshman year.
She seemed on her way to All-American status.
But on Sept. 13th, 2001, during an easy warm-up drill at
practice, Greco accidentally twisted her knee and heard a strange
popping noise. The sound stunned her, but she felt no pain.
But that sound ““ which Greco says she can still hear to
this day ““ led her to fear the worst. She was immediately
taken to the UCLA Medical Center, where she found out she had torn
her ACL. The ACL is the anterior cruciate ligament ““ the one
that guides the tibia (or shin bone) through its normal range of
motion. This injury would put Greco out the rest of the year.
What was shaping to be a breakout season turned into every
soccer player’s worst nightmare.
“I was really sad,” said Greco. She eventually broke
down into tears of frustration after the injury was confirmed.
“I just knew that it’s a long process to rehab. I
didn’t even know that I was on the (Soccer America) Team of
the Week until after I got hurt, and that just made it even
worse.”
After surgery, Greco had to spend the rest of the season putting
in long rehab hours, staying home on road trips, and watching the
rest of the games from the sidelines. She was given a medical
redshirt for the rest of the season.
“We were devastated,” said senior defender Tracey
Winzen when she found out that Greco would not return in 2001.
“She was our leading scorer. She only played so many games
but she was scoring left and right and she was just a huge asset to
the team.”
Greco watched from the sidelines as the Bruins went 16-2 the
rest of the way, winning the Pac-10 title before a 1-0 upset by
Florida 1-0 in the NCAA quarterfinals last year.
“We missed her a lot last year,” UCLA head coach
Jillian Ellis said. “I felt that with Lindsay we probably had
a chance at winning the whole thing, as she gave us a little more
depth up front.”
With moral support from her teammates, family and friends, Greco
is back this year, a healthy sophomore once again. While her three
goals this year don’t match last year’s pace, her five
assists make her an indispensable member of the Bruin lineup.
“It was hard at first getting back into it because our
forward line is all new people.” Greco said. “But I
like being back, and now I have the rest of this year and two more
soccer seasons to just play. I’m excited because I know our
program is only getter better.”