A 100-51 victory in their first exhibition game of the season would hardly seem a setback for the nation's top womens' basketball team. The Blue Devils, which have faced much preseason success in polls and rankings, and boasting the predicted National Player of the Year, however, hit a huge bump in the road when sophomore Monique Currie's knee buckled as she planted going up for a lay-up, just five seconds into the season.
It was announced yesterday that the guard will miss the 2002-2003 season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. Currie had an MRI Tuesday evening, confirming her injury. She will have surgery once the swelling decreases, which is expected to be in two to four weeks. Recovery will take almost six months, forcing Currie to miss the season in which her team has high hopes of winning the national championship.
"It goes to show how tough it is to prevent this type of injury," said Dr. Alison Toth, the Director of the Duke Women's Sports Medicine Program. "An ACL injury can still occur to even the best conditioned athletes who are doing all the training to prevent it."
It will be difficult to replace the Washington, D.C. native, who averaged 14.3 points and 6.0 rebounds in her debut season with college hoops.
She was named to second team All-ACC and WomensCollegeHoops.com Freshman All-American in a season during which she started in 22 of the team's 35 games.
"We feel very badly for Monique," head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "I think the saddest part is that people are not going to get a chance to see her play this year and see how much she has improved. She was shooting the three very well and playing excellent defense. She had taken her game to another level."
Most notably, Currie was ACC Tournament MVP, an honor she earned after netting 30 points and 12 rebounds in the championship game. Currie was predicted to be second team All-America this season by the All-Star Girls Report.
Goestenkors and the team, however, are able to remain positive and will look to the depth of the team, provided by a strong freshman class, to step up.
"We are very fortunate to have such a deep team and we understand there will be several players that will be asked to step up and help alleviate the loss of Monique," Goestenkors said. "I feel our players will all come together and this adversity will make us stronger than ever."
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