She was named the 2001 National High School Player of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. She is Ohio's all-time leader in goals scored. She has played on the U-16 and U-19 national teams. Yet entering her junior season at Virginia, Kristen Weiss is still an unknown.
"She's kind of been a secret for the past two years because she really hasn't had an opportunity to show what she can do," coach Steve Swanson said. "When you had an injury like she had, it can be very frustrating."
Weiss scores goals -- a lot of them. At Walsh Jesuit High School, she scored 138 goals in two years. She scored in her first collegiate game at Virginia.
She scored two goals as a freshman two years ago before it happened. In just her seventh showing as a Cavalier, Weiss went down with an injury in the second half of a game in which she scored the team's first point.
"I didn't think it was serious at first," Weiss said. "I heard it pop, but I only had pain for a minute and then it wasn't that painful anymore. A few days later I was walking and jogging on it, so I thought it was nothing."
That nothing turned out to be a tear in her anterior cruciate ligament. Unsettlingly common among soccer players, an ACL tear requires reconstructive surgery and months of rehabilitation. For Weiss, the injury caused her to miss the rest of the 2002 season and to lose that year of eligibility because she had already played more games than allowed under the NCAA's redshirt policy.
After rehabilitating throughout the fall and winter, Weiss was released by doctors to begin playing again in March 2003. She practiced and played with the Cavaliers throughout the spring, went home and competed with her club, and in early June was preparing for her return to college soccer. Then it happened again.
"It was the first weekend in June," Weiss said. "I was playing in a club game, and I tore it again. I knew the feeling too well. I knew right away that it was my ACL."
Despite doctors' optimistic opinions that it might not be the same injury, Weiss wouldn't even listen. Unfortunately, the doctors were right. It wasn't the same injury -- it was worse.
Immediately prior to the start of last season, Weiss had surgery to repair the same torn ACL as well as a stretched MCL and an injured meniscus. With no hope of playing at all last season, hanging up the cleats for good had to seem like a plausible option. But instead of admitting defeat, she again battled through eight months of frustrating rehabilitation. Finally, in February of this year, Weiss was released a second time to being playing with the Cavaliers.
"She has always been an important part of our team," junior Sarah Huffman said. "Now that she's able to contribute, I think that's going to make her feel better. [Having her back] is just going to make our team a lot better."
Two major surgeries and over 13 months of rehabilitation in less than two years only strengthened Weiss' desire to play and to succeed.
"I definitely appreciate it more now than I did before," Weiss said. "You don't realize how much you love it and how much you'll miss it until you have a serious injury that affects your career."
With 20 shots and two goals in her first four games back, it's only a matter of time before Weiss begins to garner the national attention she had as a standout high school performer. Just ask West Virginia. Weiss scored the only goal in a 1-0 Virginia victory last weekend.
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