Only the strong survive, and junior outside hitter Marian Weidner is showing her strength after enduring a serious shoulder injury that could have left her incapable of playing this season. Weidner experienced problems with her shoulder last season and had surgery in July to repair a tear in her shoulder.
The road to recovery has been a relatively smooth ride for Weidner. She is leading the team with 3.67 kills per game, had a career-high 20 kills against Duke Sept. 13, and has already surpassed many of her totals from last year. With only 11 matches played this season, she already has 59 kills (42 total last season) and 49 digs (34 total last season). Weidner knows that she is getting close to full recovery.
\I'd say I'm pretty darn close to 100 percent,"" Weidner said, ""I think I feel much better than last year hitting-wise. I can take hard swings which I couldn't do before and my shoulder very rarely bothers me.""
Head Coach Pete Waite has been impressed with Weidner's recovery and how she has been improving throughout the season.
""It's been a pretty amazing and fast recovery,"" Waite said. ""We took it easy on her during the preseason, but once she was cleared to go we eased her into things. She's bringing more and more all the time. Not only is she hitting it as hard as she used to, but she has more flexibility.""
Senior setter Morgan Shields knows how essential Weidner is to the team. She has seen an improvement in everything from Weidner's hitting skills to her determination to play.
""I think the surgery has made her more hungry to play,"" Shields said. ""She's progressively getting a lot more aggressive and taking much more of a leadership role on the team. Her hitting has been awesome, for coming off and really playing in her first big match this past weekend as an outside hitter she played spectacular.""
Waite also sees an increased amount of confidence and strength in Weidner's play. Though she didn't see much playing time in her first two years, he knows that all her efforts won't go unnoticed this season.
""I think her first two years she doubted herself a little bit because she wasn't getting the court time to help her feel good about what she was doing,"" Waite said. ""Now she's seeing the results of hard work. She's just improving every time she steps on the court to play.""
While Weidner seems to be at full strength, she knows that there are things she wants to continue to work on.
""I want to keep improving my hitting and my passing,"" Weidner said. ""I also want to work on serving because it's the one thing I haven't had a lot of time to work on since surgery.""
With the Badger volleyball team entering Big Ten action this week, they will be hoping for continued stellar play from Weidner. She has no worries that she will continue to recover and give her best efforts.
""I think I can only go up from here, I'm pretty optimistic,"" Weidner said.
