By Maggie Cassidy
A forward on the women’s soccer team endured a compound leg fracture in Sunday’s game against Towson, forcing broken bone to jut through her skin and an emergency trip to the hospital.
“I’ve never witnessed anything like this and I never want to witness this again,” said head coach Ed Matz.
Junior Jenna Lucchesi was taken via ambulance to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Towson, Md. after taking a hard tackle to her right ankle. Matz said Lucchesi underwent emergency surgery in which doctors inserted a metal plate and screws into her leg to straighten out the bone, a process that took about two hours.
Teammates consoled Lucchesi for thirty minutes until the ambulance arrived to take her to St. Joseph’s. The game was officially delayed for more than an hour.
Lucchesi’s parents, New York residents, were at the game and accompanied her to the hospital along with Matz. Matz said Lucchesi will stay at St. Joseph’s overnight and likely return home to Long Island with her parents for about a week after the surgery.
The rest of the Huskies returned to Boston Sunday night, as scheduled.
Matz said his team responded remarkably well to the difficult situation, but it was a trying day for everybody.
“To see something like that and to see one of your teammate’s screaming in pain [is difficult],” Matz said. “Jenna’s very close with all the players.”
Lucchesi’s horrifying accident comes in the midst of an injury-prone season for the Huskies, a team that is yet to play with its entire starting roster.
“We maybe feel like we’re a little bit cursed,” Matz said.
Lucchesi incurred the injury after she moved from striker into the attacking midfield position. Matz said Lucchesi volunteered to play the position, one she doesn’t usually play, as the Huskies transitioned into a more aggressive 4-3-3 offensive stance from their standard 4-4-2 lineup.
With about 20 minutes left in the game, Lucchesi took the ball up the right flank, beating several defenders along the way. About 18 yards out from the goal, Lucchesi was lining up to take a shot when the final Towson defender made the tackle against her.
Matz said the play was completely clean with “nothing dirty about it,” but rather a freak accident.
Matz said while Jenna has a lot of recovery to deal with, he expects that she will continue to serve as a great motivator for the squad.
“I think that [because of] Jenna’s personality, Jenna expects the team to be focused and to play on,” he said. “That’s what she would be doing right now.”
