JEFFREY ANTENORE Defender Nandi Pryce
gives midfielder Lindsay Greco a lift in more ways
than one after Greco injured her knee earlier this year.
By Eli Karon
Daily Bruin Contributor
Nandi Pryce doesn’t really remember. Lindsay Greco
can’t forget.
For Greco, it wasn’t the pain so much as it was the sound.
While warming up in practice in mid-September, Greco planted her
left leg and heard a tearing sound come from her knee.
The pain was not unbearable. In fact, Greco got up and
walked away from the spill, unaware of just how serious her injury
was.
“When it first happened, it didn’t hurt,”
Greco said. “I mean, it hurt at first, but then it
didn’t hurt at all. I could walk, so I was questioning if it
was even torn. The surgery was a lot of pain.”
The sound, however, was memorable.
“I planted going to the right, and it just went
“˜pop!’ “ Greco said. “I heard it, and I can
keep replaying it. I can keep hearing it.”
The sickening sound is especially haunting today, with the
knowledge of what it was she heard. The meniscus and anterior
cruciate ligaments in her left knee were torn.
The former CIF Player of the Year at Capistrano Valley High in
Mission Viejo, Calif. emerged last season as one of the top
freshman in the Pac-10, starting all 24 matches for UCLA and
scoring 20 points for the Bruins.
The injury has been hard on her family as well.
“I had just picked up her X-rays for her wisdom teeth to
get pulled out,” said Susan Greco, Lindsay’s mom.
“I couldn’t believe it. That weekend she had ice on her
knee and on her chin. We went through quite a bit that
weekend.”
Now, the only athletic stimulation Greco gets comes via the
physical therapy sessions she attends three times a week. She
attempts to swim and uses the stationary bicycle.
The doctors told Greco she would not play soccer for a full six
months. She has four more months of grueling therapy left. Four
more months to think about what could have been had she not been
injured. Four more months until she can begin playing the sport
that is her life.
“She’s going to come back 110 percent,” said
her mom.
The wait will not be easy. Just ask Pryce, UCLA’s standout
sophomore defender from Casselberry, Fla. Pryce was taken down from
behind last year during UCLA’s 2-0 victory over Vanderbilt in
the 2000 USC Fila Challenge.
In her attempt to forget the moment, Pryce does not even
remember the day. For the record, it was Sept. 8, almost exactly a
year before Greco went down.
The pain Pryce felt was very different from the pain Greco felt.
The tackle snapped Pryce’s left tibia, leaving her on the
field unable to walk. Without the support of braces, only the
trainers’ hands, the bone was left free to grind together,
worsening the pain.
The then-freshman struggled through two surgeries, one requiring
a metal rod being inserted into her tibia and the other resulting
in a metal screw being placed in her knee.
“I had the surgery that night and was in the hospital for
five days,” Pryce said. “I actually had another surgery
after that to re-rod it.”
Thirteen months later, Pryce is back on the field doing what she
loves. Those 13 months, however, were not easy. Pryce was forced to
watch her Bruins dominate the competition, making it to the
national championship game for the first time in school history.
She got through the disappointment, but it wasn’t easy.
“Just “¦ taking it one day at a time,” Pryce
said. “It’s hard with an injury because at first you
take really small steps, and then you hit a breaking
point.”
No pun intended. Pryce was forced to not only live with the
injury, but is constantly faced with the memory of the fateful
tackle.
“I definitely don’t have it (the injury) as much on
my mind now,” Pryce said. “But I’ve been playing
for five weeks, so I’m starting to forget about it. It took a
while.”
But Pryce is back. She plays on one of the best teams in the
nation, attends one of the best schools in the nation and lives in
one of the best cities in the nation. She tells Greco her secret to
success almost daily
“With 28 people on your team who are amazing people,
trying to help you ““ you’re instant friends when you
get here,” Pryce said.
You’ve just got to take it one day at a time.”
Pryce feels for Greco, both literally and figuratively
speaking.
Often an injured player gets lost in the fray of a hectic
schedule, combining athletics with academics. Pryce refuses to let
Greco get lost, constantly writing her notes and letting her know
that the little things Greco does help everybody on the team.
“She definitely has meant a lot,” Pryce said.
“Not just her soccer playing ability, because she’s an
amazing athlete, but she’s an amazing person. She has so much
personality.”
“Just like Nandi,” Greco said in return, embracing
her friend and source of strength during this hard time.