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Pope worked tirelessly with the UK athletic training staff and the sports medicine doctors at UK Hospital, spending around five hours a day on mobility, flexing and extending the knee, and strengthening for swelling control. After an offseason of rehabbing, the knee returned to its former condition quicker than originally expected.

Lipsitz alluded to Pope’s body being “overly fit” as a reason for it. Pope referred to her transformation into a new player as another reason, seeing it as just another challenge for her to overcome.

“It’s frustrating and annoying, and you want to give up a lot of the time. But you don’t,” Pope said. “You find a way to push through.”

Returning to the pitch

The now-senior leader was ready to return to the midfield on opening day of 2014, wanting to get back to the path she started the year prior. While Lipsitz saw that Pope was physically back to form, he knew it would take her longer to mentally return to the attacker she once was.

“I told her I thought it would be a full year until she got her touch back,” Lipsitz said.

He and the rest of the Cats saw that special-talent player fully make her return when Pope scored her first goal of the season on Oct. 19, just eight days prior to being a year removed from the injury.  Elated, excited and relieved, Pope turned to leap into the arms of the first teammate that greeted her: her old attacking partner, Gilliland.

“She was so excited, and I was so excited for her,” Gilliland said. “I did a ‘little-girl jump’ in the air after she scored, and I was right there to catch her too. But what’s so weird is that me and Stuart never hug; we’re not affectionate. The fact that we did then says so much about how we felt and how much it meant to her and me.”

In the weeks following her first goal, Lipsitz actually noticed a better soccer player in Pope than even prior to her injury.

“When you come back from an injury like an ACL, you’re always wondering if it’s you that’s not mentally there, or if it’s your knee that’s not physically there; what combination is it,” Pope said. “Now, hopefully, it flows and comes, and I can play more free.”

She got up when it was thought she couldn’t. She rose to the challenge when the old her would have accepted defeat.

Lipsitz knows the player he recruited four years ago is better now because of the challenge he presented to her at the end of her sophomore year. Teammates like Gilliland know their fellow Cat is tougher now because of the way she recovered from the “unhappy triad” injury last year.

And Pope knows what it means to be called resilient because of her experiences at UK.

“Being here and being mentored under Jon has really sharpened my ideals that I have come to practice more,” Pope said. “The work ethic I have on the field carries over to other parts of my life. The discipline I have for soccer carries over to anything else I’m going through. It’s taught me this incredible work ethic, time management and passion for doings in my life to succeed.”