During the Penn field hockey team's fourth game of the season against Lafayette, the Quakers' offense found itself on the brink of scoring the first goal of the game when something happened that changed the rest of the season.
Senior co-captain Jackie Lange went down and was carted off the field.
"I kind of knew, I heard the pop and I felt a really weird, terrible pain and I knew it wasn't going to be something that would be OK the next day," Lange said.
What would at first be reported as an ankle injury evolved into Lange missing at least a few games.
Then the official diagnosis came in -- Lange had torn her anterior cruciate ligament and would be out for the rest of the season.
"I didn't think it was going to be as serious as it ended up being," Lange said. "The first thing that went through my mind was, 'Are you serious?' Because you work so hard... and this is supposed to be the year things are coming together as a senior."
And while the rest of the team suddenly was forced to deal with the permanent absence of its second-leading scorer from last year, Lange, a resident of Bryn Mawr, Pa., had to overcome her own shock as well.
"I feel like I kind of jinxed myself because I was the healthiest kid on the team," Lange said. "I was the one who was never in the training room, never had any problems."
But Lange was able to turn her injury around into something positive.
"I still believed I could help out the team in a coaching type of dimension and a support dimension," Lange said. "I was still able to be really involved and that was great."
With Lange's positive voice on the sideline, the Quakers began to look for other forwards to fill the void on offense but did not alter their offensive routine during practices and games.
"We basically kept our same strategy of attacking up the right with the left wing ready to score," senior Marianne Rogers said. "We focused a lot on tipping and sweeping off of balls from the right during practices."
And while junior Liz Lorelli was the most effective in fulfilling the gap left by Lange -- she led the team in scoring with 20 goals -- Rogers, junior Sara Shelley and sophomore Cara Calahan were key components in Penn's season, tallying nine goals and 14 assists among them.
"We definitely got huge support from Cara, Sara, Marianne and the rest of the team," Lange said. "They were all major contributors and really worked well with Liz to get the job done."
The offensive support remained consistent throughout most of the season. The Quakers only suffered one shutout defeat this year -- a 2-0 loss to then-No. 7 Penn State -- the fewest since 1995.
Lange also stated that the Quakers' defense -- which was the most questionable part of the Penn lineup, heading into the season with only one senior starter in Emily Farnesi -- played "the best I have ever seen a defense play during my years here."
"Our defense really came together and played unbelievable," Lange said. "I think the Princeton game, where we had them 0-0 in the first half... was their best performance."
The seniors graduating with Lange agree that she gave the Quakers much-needed encouragement from the bench.
Jackie "was a tremendous help to the team... it would have been better if she were out there... but her presence on the sideline was a key component of us doing as well as we did," senior Courtney Blenheim said.
Lange will undergo surgery on Dec. 18 to repair her torn ACL. While her career in a Penn uniform ended that night against Lafayette, Lange -- who recorded nine goals in her four years at Penn -- is not quite ready to give up the sport that she has been playing since fifth grade.
"I would still not like to give up my involvement with field hockey," Lange said. "I would still enjoy playing club or at competitive levels."
