It was just a regular hit, the same swing Darcy Dorton took to record her 276 kills during the season.
However, this time ended differently.
Dorton's knee gave out after she landed in women's volleyball practice three weeks ago, tearing the freshman outside hitter's left anterior cruiciate ligament (ACL) and medial meniscus. She also has severe bone contusions on several sides of her knee.
The freshman will have surgery March 23 at Hershey Medical Center with Penn State Director of Athletic Medicine Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli.
"It's painful, but it's more upsetting than painful," Dorton said. "I cried afterwards, because I knew what it all entailed. It's not super painful, but the way I look at it though is that it's just another injury like anything else. It can set me back, or I can look at this as it won't bring me down, and I can get stronger from this."
While Dorton isn't sure how long she will be off the court, she said this isn't a career-ending injury. She said the worst-case scenario would be redshirting her sophomore season, but she is waiting to see how recovery goes before she makes any decisions.
Penn State coach Russ Rose declined to comment on the injury.
A normal ACL tear takes about nine months to fully recover. But because Dorton has the added meniscus tear and bone contusions, Sebastianelli estimated she would take six to eight extra weeks to fully heal.
With the high-level grade of her injury, Sebastianelli said Dorton will need to do protective weight bearing to prevent the stitches on the meniscus from pulling apart and tearing. For at least the next six weeks, Dorton won't even be able to walk without the aid of crutches.
"She won't be able to rehab as aggressively as she normally would because she has multiple problems," Sebastianelli said. "She'll have to find a balance between rehabbing all the different injuries."
Dorton's teammates understand the severity of the injury and said they know they have lost a key player.
In her first season as a Nittany Lion, Dorton had a .285 hitting percentage, averaging 2.38 kills per set and 66 total blocks.
"Any injury makes a knot in your stomach, especially knowing that she's worked her butt off this entire season," freshman outside hitter Kristin Carpenter said. "If it wasn't for Darcy, we wouldn't have won the national championship."
Collegian reporter Bill Landis contributed to this story
