Its is not every day that one comes across a warrior on the court, but Gina Gill, psychology sophomore, could be considered one due to her determination to come back from an injury.

Gill injured her ankle during practice on Oct. 26.

“I came down after blocking and landed on my teammate’s foot and rolled my ankle,” she said. “It was a grade two sprain, and they didn’t think I had to go to a doctor because I still had strength in it.”

To get her ankle back in shape, Gill exercised it all week and did not apply any unnecessary weight to it.

“It feels good now. I was nervous at first to land on it for the first half of practice,” she said. “But, towards the end, I started playing like I normally do.”

Gill said she does not feel pain anymore, but that there is something there.

“It’s a weird feeling,” she said. “It’s like a pinch, just because it’s not used to it and it’s still kind of weak.”

This injury has been affecting the way she plays. As an outside hitter, Gill has to jump many times throughout a game to go for kills. She said that the injury has not let her jump as high as usually does or let her plays as aggressively.

“I try to not think about it so it doesn’t affect my game,” she said. Gill added that the injury will not be factor in any of Loyola’s games.

As a precaution, her ankle will be taped and she will wear an ankle brace whenever she plays.

Head Coach Tommy Harold said he was pleased to see the way his team stepped up to replace Gill.

“It was a team effort. She’s a huge contributor and when you lose someone who’s contributing a lot in the lineup, everyone has to do their job a little bit better to make up for that and I think they did that,” Harold said.

Sam Worsham, political science freshman, and the team’s setter said she was concerned about her teammate’s injury.

“I kind of freaked out a little at first, but I think we’re fine now,” she said. “She’s a huge part of our team and I think everyone knows that.”

Worsham said that other factors also played in to her concern.

“A lot of people have been dropping and quitting and we didn’t know who was going to fit in the right spot, but I think we did fine without her,” Worsham said. “She’s the glue that keeps us all together, so there were times when we missed her for that aspect too.”

Eduardo Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected]