As her teammates practiced, sophomore back Amy Kee limped onto J.S. Coyne Field with an ice bag taped to her right knee. Instead of heading to her position on the field, Kee found a spot on the bench and watched her teammates.

Two weeks ago, the 2009 All-Big East back twisted her knee in practice and has since missed the last three games. A year ago, this may have been a major problem for the Orange. But this year, even Kee knows the team is just fine.

‘It’s absolutely fantastic,’ Kee said of the team’s depth this season. ‘Last year, say, if we had a few main players injured, then maybe we wouldn’t be as strong as we were. But this team is so awesome. Other people have had to step up.’

The No. 8 Orange (6-3, 2-0 Big East) will again be without Kee this weekend as it travels to Rhode Island and Massachusetts for a two-game road series. SU’s first game is on Saturday at 1 p.m. against Providence in Providence, R.I. Then on Sunday, SU is set to face off against Massachusetts at 2 p.m. in Amherst, Mass.

As the Orange sets out on its trip without Kee, last year’s top hitter on penalty corners, head coach Ange Bradley is sure that her team will be alright.

‘I think (the penalty corners without Kee) have been pretty good, actually,’ Bradley said. ‘I mean, we have scored most of our goals the past couple of games off them.’

Since losing Kee, the team has had to make some adjustments to its lineup. For starters, Bradley moved freshman midfielder Leonie Geyer to back and senior forward Lindsey Conrad to midfielder.

But the biggest absence Kee has left is on the team’s penalty corner unit. Last year Kee burst onto the scene as a freshman. She was second on the team with twelve goals and was a menace from her hitter position on corners. At the start of this season, she resumed her role as primary shooter and was complimented by the freshman Geyer.

Since the injury, though, Geyer has been joined by senior back Maggie Befort at the top of the key. Replacing Befort as the in-bounder is junior back Martina Loncarica and replacing Loncarica as stick stopper is junior back Liz McInerney.

On Sunday, SU didn’t miss a beat without Kee. The Orange scored three of its four goals off penalty corners, including the game winner from Loncarica in overtime. Senior forward Shelby Schraden said that it’s the depth that this year’s squad posses that has allowed for Kee’s injury to go by so smoothly.

‘This is the first time in four years that we have 27 players that are ready to compete all the time,’ Shelby Schraden said. ‘Since we only start eleven, there’s a lot of strength on our bench.

‘For example, someone might be the No. 1 at stick stopping and No. 2 on the deflection line. If they are out of their stick-stopping role, then the No. 2 stick stopper knows it’s their time to step up in the game.’

Bradley said that the change in the formation was made after Kee went down with her injury, but the coach added that she wasn’t fully satisfied with her young back’s performance so far this year.

The team’s additional depth has made it so that no one’s position is safe. Bradley said that it’s not a certainty that Kee will get her spot back once she is healthy, even though Kee was spectacular from the position last year.

‘Yeah, that was last year. That was two thousand and what year is it?’ Bradley said with a short pause. ‘Nine. This is 2010, and she hasn’t demonstrated that right now. It says a lot about the depth of our team and Maggie being a senior has stepped up and Leo, a freshman, has stepped up and Marty (Loncarica) is flexible.’

Kee said that she expects to be back to playing by sometime next week and that she might be able to play in next weekend’s two road games. Bradley, on the other hand, said that she fully expects the back to be 100 percent healthy by the week after when the Orange returns home for two games.

Regardless of when she returns, it’s hard to deny that the team will be better of with Kee. Her 34 points from a year ago may not mean anything right now, but they could help out a team heading into the midst of Big East play.

‘We just have to get Amy healthy and get her back to where she can be,’ Bradley said. ‘I know that’s what she wants and what we want. We’ll get her there.’

rwmarfur@syr.edu

Published on September 29, 2010 at 12:00 pm