Randolph works her way back after injury

North Carolina midfielder Kasey White fed a perfect cross on the ground to the far post, and all fellow midfielder Sara Randolph had to do was run onto the ball and chip it into the empty net.

But it was a run that Randolph might not have been able to complete just a month and a half ago.

The senior underwent surgery in April on her right patella to realign her knee cap, fixing a chronic injury that had plagued Randolph since late in her sophomore year. Randolph couldn't run until June. She didn't start regaining full mobility and making cuts until July.

"The first week of the season, I just wanted to shoot myself," she said. "I had only touched the ball for about a month, I wasn't in my best shape and still in a lot of pain. I tried to be patient. ... You just have to realize it's a long season."

It also helped that Randolph had the support of teammates who had successfuly rebounded from major knee surgeries.

"When you come off a knee surgery, you've lost fitness, you've lost speed and your muscles aren't in the condition they need to be," said midfielder Amy Steadman, who has had four knee surgeries. "That's a hard process. ... It's frustrating at first."

Before Randolph started feeling pain in her knee late in the 2002 season, she had been a key contributor since the start of her career.

Randolph started 21 games as a freshman and 20 as a sophomore.

She scored the game-winning goal in the ACC championship game her first year and was named to the 2001 ACC All-Freshman team. But while playing on a bad knee her junior year, Randolph made just nine starts.

"I went to the doctors and didn't really get it resolved until my junior year, when it was too late," Randolph said. "I really should've taken care of it earlier in my junior year and maybe not have played because I was in so much pain the whole year. I was playing, but it wasn't quality because my body was just a wreck."

Randolph, who played 50 minutes Sunday, has made just one start this year. But her playing time has slowly increased, and she is now in a battle with senior Anne Felts for the left midfield starting spot.

"I'd like to be starting - that's the goal for me personally - but as long as the team is playing well, it doesn't really matter," Randolph said. "Felts and I are kind of a tag team right now. As long as both of us are kicking ass and getting it done, then I don't care. If I can walk out of here senior year with a national championship ring, then we've done our job."

The goal against Virginia, in which Randolph dashed down the left flank to meet White's cross from about 10 yards out, was her first of the season and a key play in UNC's win.

"Every time she steps on the field she has this confidence that, 'I'm going to do it,'" Steadman said. "Today she made an unbelievably committed run to get in the box and really helped us win this one."

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