Anna Dolhansky, who has netted five goals this season including three game-winners, is La Salle's third leading scorer after utilizing a redshirt in 2011. Additionally, she's recorded four assists for a total of 14 points.

PHILADELPHIA - It was her sophomore year during preseason practice when Anna Dolhansky's collegiate soccer career was put on hold with a devastating knee injury. After a year of grueling rehabilitation, Dolhansky is back with the Explorers, thanks in large part to Olympic gold medalist Carli Lloyd, whom Dolhansky has formed a close bond with over the years.

“She kept motivating me to stay focused,” Dolhansky said. “She told me it will pay off in the end and even though you feel that you will never be able to play soccer again, it will come back to you.”
Dolhansky's troubles started last fall when she experienced a sharp pain in her right knee. She tried playing out her injury, but her meniscus and cartridge damage was too severe for Dolhansky to continue her season. Fortunately, it was not an ACL tear or sprain for Dolhansky, but her injury put her out for the 2011 season.
Dolhansky saw multiple doctors, but nothing was showing up on her MRI's. She tested her leg in two games, but the pain to her knee continued to bother her. After multiple doctors' reports and visits, Dolhansky went under the knife for an hour-long surgery in January.  What seemed like a wasted season turned into a godsend for Dolhansky, as head coach Paul Royal offered Dolhansky redshirt status.

“We knew that her best years were ahead of her,” Royal said. “We really did not want to have her out on the field and be half the player she can be.”

In collegiate athletics there are two different types of redshirt opportunities: academic and injury related. If one already played a game and experienced injury as Dolhansky did, then redshirt status may be granted. If she chose to, Dolhansky could come back to La Salle to work on her master's for a fifth year and be eligible to play for the program.

The hours of long workouts were not that troubling for Dolhansky compared to getting around campus all of last year with crutches and a brace. Luckily for Dolhansky, her teammate and roommate for the last two years, Dominique Ponente, helped her carry books to and from class.

Dolhansky rehabilitated with La Salle trainer, Adam Edwards, almost every day in 2011. Their program regiment would vary each day between strength training and recovery.
Seeing their own child on the sidelines was tough for Anna's parents to watch. Laura Dolhansky, Anna's mother, saw how her daughter grew through the injury during a time when she yearned to be on the field with her teammates.

“It was very difficult, especially since Anna is such a competitor,” Laura Dolhansky said. “For her to sit on the sidelines for such an incredible year for the team last year, I thought it was going to be extremely difficult for her.”

Anna's parents kept telling their daughter to stay in a positive mindset throughout her recovery.

“As a family we kept reminding her (Anna) that she has a great work ethic, and when you put your mind to something she is going to accomplish it,” she added.
  Dolhansky fully participated in April 2012 in a couple of spring games for the Explorers. Coach Royal sent in the forward in 10-minute stints to test out the knee in competition. It was important for Dolhansky to get back into the speed of the game after being out for over seven months.  She felt better, but she wasn't 100 percent yet.

Since 2006, Dolhansky has been a member of the Universal Soccer Academy, an elite soccer-training program in the South Jersey area. President James Galanis saw so much potential in Dolhansky that he asked her to come train with Olympian Carli Lloyd.

“She has been a role model for me, because she is the perfect athlete,” Dolhansky said. “She does everything right. She eats right and she trains all of the time and is focused.”

Lloyd is a New Jersey native herself, growing up in Delran, which is close to Dolhansky's hometown in Blackwood, New Jersey.
“It is cool that we are from the same area and from the same style of soccer in Jersey,” Dolhansky said. “I think we both are kind of like that we are hard workers.”

Lloyd had her fair share of injuries throughout her career, dating back to a broken ankle in 2010 playing in the Women's Professional Soccer league. Lloyd eventually recovered from her broken bone, but did not feel completely normal until a year after the injury.

Having support from family and friends during injury for any athlete is what Lloyd thinks is the most important factor in a speedy recovery.

“The biggest thing with injuries and athletes is that they always want come back sooner than they should,” Lloyd said. “You need to have somebody that is not going to allow that to happen.
“You need to have someone to put their best interests ahead of everything and allow your body to heal.”

Throughout their six-hour daily training sessions, Lloyd made Dolhansky lessen her worries about her injury. Both players have similar injury stories, but Lloyd sees a bit of herself on the field in Dolhansky.

“It is her competiveness,” Lloyd said. “She does not like to lose and is fierce. That is how I kind of was.”

“I never put up with anyone on the field. If someone had a tackle on me on the ball, then the next time I was making sure that I was winning the ball, tackling them harder than they tackled me.”

Lloyd praised Dolhansky's effort in being patient while waiting for her body to fully heal. Their workouts together at the academy really showed Dolhansky's character, which impressed Lloyd most of all.
“She put in a lot of hard work and she had a lot of ways to go,” Lloyd said. “She lost a lot of fitness, but I think for her to come back and show how hard she worked says a lot about her.”

Lloyd doesn't usually have time to watch collegiate games, but on Sept. 28th, she came to La Salle to catch Dolhansky and the women's team topple St. Bonaventure.

Dolhansky scored the game-winning goal against in the game's 67^th minute, while her mentor and friend watched in the stands at McCarthy stadium.
 
“She has just been supportive of my soccer career,” Dolhansky said. “It showed with her coming to my game against St. Bonaventure.  It is kind of cool to have someone like that who is well known across the country and really takes the time out to actually talk to you and cares about you.”

Being a mentor for Dolhansky is something that Lloyd takes pride in. 

“A lot of these girls dream of playing on the national team or becoming a professional,” Lloyd said. “We have to continue to do as much as we can to promote the sport and give girls a dream and hopes to one day playing at this level.”