She leaps to block the ball. She’s done it a thousand times, but this time, something is different.  This time, everything comes crashing down alongside her. 

Landing from the jump, senior Haley Keresetter stepped on the opposing middle’s foot, rolling her ankle and falling to the floor. Something was off. She never could have imagined that the same move she does in every game would pause her final season. 

“I remember trying to get up and not being able to,” Haley said. “I just sat down on the court, and [Addison Vary] came over and told me I was fine. I couldn’t get up; I knew I wasn’t fine.” 

During the remainder of the game against Southlake Carroll, Haley was assessed by an athletic trainer who said it was a severe sprain to the ankle. While sprained ankles make up 40% of volleyball-related injuries, this was more than a sprain. Haley tore a ligament in her ankle. 

“After [the injury] happened, I couldn’t feel anything in my ankle,” Haley said. “It didn’t hurt, but it swelled up before I walked off the court, so much so I could see it through my sock.”

It took no time to realize she wouldn’t play for a majority of her final season on the varsity team. The injury took place during the second week of the season, rendering her out for four-to-six weeks, per her doctor’s recommendation. Head coach Rachel Buckley said that, while not active on the court, Haley never left.

“She never disappeared,” Buckley said. “She did a great job of staying around the team for morale and energy.” 

While her game days had gone from being on the court to losing her voice from the bench, Haley said she was dealing with a whole new set of hurdles on her track to recovery. Initially, she was told her recovery should last four to six weeks; instead, it took eight. She got referred to a chiropractor through her club coach, who set up her path to rejoining the team. 

“A lot of the [recovery process] was difficult,” Haley said. “It was scraping, dry needling and soundwave therapy all to push the swelling out of my body. Any time the pain would get to be too much, I would think about how I was missing out on the season, and how I owed it to my teammates to get back as soon as possible.”

While going through the recovery process, Haley was also approaching the games from a different perspective: the bench. In an effort to keep up with the team, Haley would give her teammates notes based on what she observed. 

“Because Haley was on the sidelines, she was able to look at the other side of the court and see things we couldn’t,” outside hitter Cadence McDonald said. “She would tell me what I have open to hit and would be able to explain to our defense what they needed to change while also encouraging everyone.”

As Haley prepared to return to the court, Buckley said she focused on reminding Haley that the team didn’t just need her, they needed a fully ready version of her.

“[I told her] ‘If you’re stressed, your body is not going to get better,’” Buckley said. “‘If you can’t get better, then we can’t go full speed.’ We wanted to make sure we gave her that patience that she needed to come back, and confidence in the rest of the team. We wanted to ease her into it.”

With her reintroduction, Haley said she had some struggles to overcome. Her first game back on the court was against Little Elm on Oct. 18, in which she played during the final set. She said this was her first time truly feeling nervous on the court. 

“I’m used to playing in front of crowds, but I’ve never had nerves before,” Haley said. “It was hard to fully trust myself on the court, especially because I had to go right back where I got injured under the net. It was also hard to connect with the setters after being gone for so long. I was just so anxious.” 

Now, Haley has fully returned to the court. She finished her senior season with the varsity team, not just on the sidelines, but in the middle of the action. Next fall, she will be attending the University of Pennsylvania to play volleyball on scholarship at the School of Arts and Sciences. 

“[While I was injured,] I learned how much work you have to put in to get yourself back by the time you want to be somewhere,” Haley said. “I now know so much about the mental side, and have developed a new trust within myself and realized my full potential.”