DePaul University Athletics
Welcome Back, Chelsea Grant
8/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S SOCCER
Aug. 18, 2011
CHICAGO - Most soccer players would love to score a goal in their season opener.
Chelsea Grant simply wants to make a good, clean slide tackle.
That will let Grant know she is all the way back from a debilitating knee injury as DePaul opens its 2011 women's soccer season with a 4 p.m. match against Iowa on Friday at Wish Field at Cacciatore Stadium.
"Soccer players get their buzz from scoring a goal," said Grant, an All-BIG EAST Rookie Team choice in 2009 who had knee surgery after playing in four matches last year. "I get my buzz from delivering a hard shot.
"I was a tomboy growing up and played all the rough-and-tumble games with the boys at recess. The girls were afraid to play with me."
Grant has experienced a little fear of the unknown over the last 10 months.
"That was the first injury and the first surgery of my life," Grant said. "I had never broken a bone or sprained anything.
"It was so hard going from one extreme to another. I couldn't run for the first seven months and could only bend my knee 15 degrees.
"I was really down on myself the first week after surgery, getting around on crutches with this huge leg brace.
"I remember thinking: 'What am I going to do?'"
She would hobble to practice, support her teammates and look for ways to make herself useful.
Coming into the 2010 season, it was hard to tell which was higher, Grant's level of fitness or optimism, after helping lead the Blue Demons to their first BIG EAST Championship tournament her freshman year.
Then came the injury followed by a long, cold winter of rehabilitation.
Grant was so anxious to bounce back that she would sometimes overextend herself during workouts.
"I was warned about rushing everything and the possibility of re-injury," Grant said. "It was frustrating. "I'd be gong good for a while and then I'd feel some pain in my knee. That would push me back even more."
By the end of June, the standout defender was cleared for contact work. Playing in a couple of games, the realization hit home that she wasn't the same old Chelsea Grant.
"That's when it hit me how far I had to go before getting back to how I was before the injury," Grant said. "Every day at practice, something comes up to complain about.
"I never do that anymore. After what happened, I'd do anything just to touch the ball again.
"After being away from the game so long, you realize how much you love playing soccer."
Grant and the Blue Demons will face an Iowa team that finished 8-9-3 last season and is led by sophomores Morgan Showalter (five goals, four assists in 2010) and Leah DeMoss (five goals, three assists) and junior Jade Grimm (four goals, four assists).
DePaul (11-9-2) opened the 2010 season with a 2-0 victory over the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.
Blue Demon coach Erin Chastain is glad to have Grant back. "Her return adds so much," Chastain said. "She is a good communicator and a leader in the back line and gives us a physical presence. Chelsea is used to playing in pressure situations against the best programs."
Whatever lingering doubts Grant has about her comeback could be answered on Friday.
"Once I make my first slide tackle, it'll be like: 'Okay, I'm back,'" Grant said.
Blue Demon Quick Kicks
- DePaul enters the season looking to qualify for the BIG EAST Championship for the third year in a row. Last season, the Blue Demons advanced to the BIG EAST quarterfinals for the first time.
- The Blue Demons were 11-9-0 overall last season, 5-6-0 in the BIG EAST (fourth in the National Division).
- DePaul defeated Pittsburgh 1-0 on Michelle Scandora's goal for its first BIG EAST Championship victory.
- The Blue Demons set a school season record with four overtime wins in 2010.
- Sophomore Natasa Radosavljevic is the leading returning goal scorer with three.
- Sophomore Ashleigh Goddard, a 2010 All-BIG EAST Rookie Team selection, is tops among returning players with three assists.
- Senior Arianna Foster leads all returnees in shots with 33 and shots on goal with 17.
- DePaul will tangle with eight NCAA Championship tournament teams on its 2011 schedule, led by 2010 NCAA champion Notre Dame.
- The 28-player roster features seven seniors, four juniors, seven sophomores and 10 freshmen.
- In the preseason, the Blue Demons downed Indiana 1-0 on a goal by Erin Pekovitch with an assist from Sarah Gorden. They lost to Northwestern 2-0 in Evanston.
- DePaul hits the road on Sunday to face a Milwaukee team that was 12-7-2 last year and qualified for its fifth NCAA Championship in the last six years.
- Milwaukee is led by preseason All-American Sarah Hagen who had 19 goals and six assists last season. She has 67 goals and 151 points in her three-year career.
