All it took was one night. Just like that, Joanne Lombard’s sophomore season with the Syracuse field hockey team was over – before it even started.

Only a week before heading back to SU for her sophomore season, Lombard attempted to jump a fence with a group of friends. Harmless, really, before she caught her foot on the fence and landed on her back, severely injuring her kidney and slipping a disk.

Now, after returning to school and practice last spring, Lombard has regained her top form. She leads the Orangewomen with two goals in the team’s first three games as SU gets ready to take on Albany at 7 p.m. tonight at Coyne Field.

‘I have never been happier,’ Lombard said. ‘I’ve torn both of my anterior cruciate ligaments but this injury was different because I fully understood what I lost. Playing field hockey at the higher college level made me realize how much I love the sport and my team. I thank my lucky stars all the time.’

After initially suffering the injury, Lombard was ordered to move as little as possible. Any lifting or twisting could have split open her kidney again. She was confined to resting until late October, when she was able to begin running. She began lifting weights in November.

Lombard returned to Syracuse for the spring semester and was able to practice. But she had to wear a back brace and flak jacket, similar to what football players wear. Despite the nuisances, Lombard continued to improve and get stronger. Finally, this summer her doctor at home cleared her to play with just a small foam pad over her kidney.

‘It was good to get her back,’ senior forward Anne-Marie Guglieri said. ‘She was out for so long and then came back and she was anxious to get back into it. You could just see it in her.’

In Lombard’s absence, freshman Michelle Sola stepped into the sweeper role and performed well, starting all 21 games. She also assumed Lombard’s role of taking corners, a spot at which Lombard excelled in her freshman year, scoring four goals.

Now with Lombard back, Sola will stay at sweeper as Lombard moves to right back. The two will share responsibilities taking corners, a possibility that excites Syracuse head coach Kathleen Parker.

‘It provides a lot of stability in the backfield,’ Parker said. ‘Both of them have big, strong shots.’

Said Lombard: ‘We both have such powerful hits and our accuracy is great. With spending so much time on it in practice we could just dominate with our corners. We should do amazing things.’

Lombard scored the Orangewomen’s second goal in last Friday’s 4-2 loss to New Hampshire. The goal was her first since her freshman year, but she didn’t even stop to consider that.

‘It got us back in the game,’ Lombard said. ‘I didn’t look too deep into it. I felt like the team was rising to the occasion and that would give us an extra push.’

Now that Lombard is back to full-strength, complete with a blistering shot off corners, she hopes to help the Orangewomen rebound from a 0-3 start. Tonight’s home opener puts SU up against a Great Danes (1-2) team to which it has never lost. Syracuse’s 4-0 all-time record against Albany includes last season’s 3-0 home victory.

The pressure is now on for the Orangewomen, who have been outscored 11-3 in their three losses after back-to-back Big East tournament appearances. The Orangewomen won the league championship in 2001.

‘How close this team is off the field carries over onto the field,’ Lombard said. ‘Everyone is so competitive so there are no letdowns in practice. Everyone has the same skill level so we’re always challenging each other. We’ve been working on the offense in practice and we know exactly what we need to do.’

Published on September 9, 2003 at 12:00 pm