With all the time and preparation that goes into getting an athlete ready for game day, people can think that an athlete is set for any possible situation. Injuries tend to happen unexpectedly as in the case of sophomore goalkeeper Alexis Carrillo.

Carrillo was participating in a scrimmage match in Mexico during March 2012 when she tore her ACL.

ACL is the abbreveation for the arterior cruciate ligament, which is one of the four ligaments that connects the knee to the upper leg. Tearing of the ligament usually happens when a person plants his foot and turns or pivots suddenly, or is struck by another object.

Carrillo said the injury happened during play when she came out to clear the ball to end the opposing team’s attack.

“When I cleared it, my foot was facing toward the left and the girl came from behind me and stepped on the back of my foot. When I tried to turn, the top half of my leg turned with me while the bottom half stayed in place and popped,” Carrillo said.

When the injury happened, Carrillo was faced with a different kind of challenge.

“She got a little depressed,” sophomore forward Claudia Lopez said. “She was upset.”

Carrillo had knee surgery to repair the ligament and then had to endure seven months of rehab and training to get back on the field.

“When she came back, she was slow and scared to go out for the ball. As time progressed, she looked like her old self again,” sophomore defender Jasmine Cornejo said.

Carrillo believes that the injury shook her confidence on the field.

“This is my first season back. It’s interesting. At first when I started, I was scared that I was going to get injured again, but now, I’m used to it and back into it again,” Carrillo said.

Although it wasn’t an easy road through rehab, the team was supportive of Carrillo and felt that she still had the talent to be an impact during matches.

“We weren’t really sure if she was going to be the same. She was really beast before, but she proved us wrong and came back just as (good). She works really hard on and off the field so we’re confident in her abilities,” sophomore midfielder Lyanna Farran said.

“I have faith that she’ll be just as good than before she got hurt,” she added.

Carrillo seems to have gotten past her injury which she claimed was extremely painful, and she has set her mind on the team’s future.

“My goal is to get the shut-out record with the team. The current record is 17, so the team would have to get to 18,” Carrillo said.

The team has successfully kept five schools from scoring this season, netting them five “shut-outs.”

More importantly, Carrillo also said that winning another state championship is the primary goal of this year.