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By Harold Gutmann Leaving the soccer practice field last week, de-


fender Ashley Rape smiled as she shooed away a question about the medical tape above her eye. Instead, a teammate had to fill in the details — a header from a Florida State player left Rape with six stitches and a second black eye this season. It’s understandable why Rape wouldn’t think that was worth mentioning. Two black eyes are nothing compared to the


two ACL surgeries the Dallas native has undergone in the past two years. After tearing her ACL late in the 2008 season,


the redshirt sophomore underwent nine months of rehab, only to require a second ACL surgery last summer that wiped out the entire 2009 season. “I was just heartbroken for her,” head coach


Robbie Church said. “We watched her work so hard, and then all of a sudden to tear the ACL again right before the season started was devastating. I’ll never forget the first team meeting when we had to


Feature of the Week Ashley Rape Works Her Way Back From Two ACL Surgeries


tell them that Ashley couldn’t play. You’re trying to find a silver lining out there, and it’s hard to do.” Rape was named to the All-ACC freshman


team after leading Duke to eight shutouts in 15 matches as a starter before tearing her left ACL for the first time. But now she’s back on the backline, a master communicator that Church calls the glue that holds a young defense together. That defense helped Duke (10-6-3, 4-5-1 in


the ACC) post three straight shutouts last month to clinch a spot in the ACC Tournament and earn a No. 25 national ranking. “She never quit, she never blamed anyone


else, she never said ‘Why me?’” Church said. “She just kept working every day to get herself better, and it’s an inspiration to (the coaching staff), and I know it’s an inspiration to the players.” Rape had never suffered anything more serious


than stress fractures until a Duke practice in 2008. She collided awkwardly with a teammate and heard two loud pops, a telltale sign of an ACL injury. “It was the first injury I’d ever dealt with,” Rape


said. “The whole experience was new. I didn’t know how it worked.” She soon found out it meant waiting three


weeks for the swelling to go down, followed by sur- gery. She had been at the peak of her career until the injury, but the grieving process was now over, and it was time for Rape to get back to something she knew well — hard work. She worked towards walking, then running, then cutting, using each benchmark as a way to keep focused during the grueling weeks ahead. “We joke that the training room is a harder life


than playing,” Rape said, who did 15-20 hours of rehab a week and still attended every practice and game. “Playing now, it’s a lighter load.” Rape stayed at Duke after exams to continue


training, and she was set to be cleared for full con- tact at the start of August. But she had hyperex- tended her knee a few times over the summer, and when she went to get cleared a test found that her ACL had been stretched to the point that a second surgery was needed. Throughout the process, Rape thought she


would only miss the end of her freshman season. Now came the reality that she would have to go al- most two years without playing soccer. Still, she felt a weird sense of relief. “It had been a really difficult summer in that I


was training a ton and my knee wasn’t feeling great. My fitness level and agility hadn’t come back like I expected. It was a little relief to know that something was wrong.” Despite having another long rehab in front of


While she wouldn’t wish two ACL surgeries on


anyone, Ashley has found some benefits. “I’m 16 games into the season, and when I


step on the field everything seems new to me. It’s exciting. I’ve been playing since I was 5, so there were definitely games in my career where I was like, ‘Wow, this is getting kind of old. My body hurts,’ this and that. (Now) it’s my junior year of college, and I still have that new feeling.” The experience of watching from the sidelines


also helped Rape learn more about the game and develop her mental side. Though she still isn’t 100 percent physically, she can now compensate by vi- sualizing the game better and knowing what’s about to happen. Last year’s experience also means she can


now relate to all the players on the team — those that start, and those who work hard without the grati- fication of playing — which aids her ability to be an effective leader. “I’ve learned a lot from it and grown a lot, so I


wouldn’t have it a different way,” Rape said of the past two years. But the biggest silver lining, the one that


Church eventually pointed to, was that redshirting gave Rape an extra year to play with Avery, a fresh- man forward/midfielder at Duke. “I’m so happy to have three years together


rather than just two,” Avery said. “It’s mindboggling because so many people would have given up, and she just continues to get better and better.”


her, she never considered if a second surgery was worth it.


“People ask me now, ‘If I ever had to do it


twice I probably wouldn’t, what was your thought process?’ Honestly, I must not have thought. I must have blocked that out because I went in for surgery two days after it was torn.” Avery Rape, Ashley’s younger sister, didn’t have any doubts either. “(Soccer’s) a part of her, and I couldn’t ever see


it changing,” Avery said. “I don’t know what she’s go- ing to do when she graduates.” Rape’s atttude made her a role model for her


teammates, who voted her captain this season even though she hadn’t played a game in almost two years.


“She just showed tremendous drive doing an


ACL rehab back-to-back,” team trainer Emily Nor- cross, who Rape credits for getting her through the recovery process, said. “One is hard enough. It’s a 9-12 month process, and to stay focused and driven for that whole time is difficult for anyone to do. To come back as strong as she has really shows how much determination she has within her.”


Digital Publishing


GoDuke Weekly The official online magazine of Duke Athletics


Managing Editors Contributors


Jon Jackson Matt Plizga


Michael Tomko


Ben Blevins, Lindy Brown Art Chase, Chris Cook,


Ned McGraw, Kristina Morrison Meredith Rieder, Ashley Wolf


Staff Writers A.J. Carr


Al Featherston Barry Jacobs Jim Sumner


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Letters to the editor and general feedback: letters@duaa.duke.edu


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