As women’s sports have become increasingly popular during the last 10 years, women’s sports injuries have as well. Though women do not compete in physical sports like football or the full-contact versions of ice hockey and lacrosse, they have found their own ways to incur serious injuries.

Syracuse women’s lacrosse junior Caitlyn Dragon knows what it’s like to sit a year while watching her team play. She knows what it’s like to rehab, rehab and rehab some more until finally making it back to the playing field.

Now, more than a year after tearing the meniscus in her left knee, Dragon is contributing. She has three goals in the last two games, a career-high four points, and will lead the No. 13 Orangewomen in a 7 p.m. game today at Cornell on Schoellkopf Field.

‘I have good teammates around me to help me get back in the game,’ Dragon said. ‘It was a pretty quick recovery.’

The 6-foot Dragon, who plays attack, missed all of the 2003 season after a February surgery. She was expected to start as the team’s feeder – the player who quarterbacks the offense from behind the opposing team’s goal. Instead, SU head coach Lisa Miller was forced to find a replacement.

This season, Dragon towers over most of her opponents and is gaining momentum with three games left on the regular season schedule. She has played in seven games, including one start against Boston College last weekend.

Though she said she is the most comfortable she has been since the injury, she still wears a conspicuous black knee brace for support.

‘I’m starting to get used to it,’ Dragon said. ‘In the beginning, it was real hard. I was a lot slower, but I’m starting to get used to it.’

Dragon’s knee injury is not uncommon among female athletes. In 1997, the NCAA did a study on knee injuries, the most common ailment for women. The study found that women were more than twice as likely to sustain a serious knee injury than men.

The causes for the knee injuries range from wider hips to weaker hamstrings.

‘Most kids, when they’re coming back from an injury,’ Miller said, ‘you’ll see they’ll nurse it for a while until they figure out it’s really not going to slide out from underneath them again.

‘(Dragon’s) a lot more mobile now than she was at the beginning of the season. She had slowed down, her change of direction was limited and she was tentative.’

With four seniors leaving after this season, this year’s juniors will have to shoulder a lot of responsibility next year. As for right now, Dragon and the Orangewomen (9-3, 4-1 Big East) are just focusing on Cornell (3-9, 2-4 Ivy).

‘She’s got her confidence back,’ Miller said. ‘It’s good to have her back because Caitlyn is very vocal and she is a good leader.’

Published on April 26, 2004 at 12:00 pm