Caroline May felt devastated as she lay on the ground.
Just minutes earlier, the sophomore was running through drills at practice at Donald R. Dizney Stadium trying to earn more minutes under Florida lacrosse coach Amanda O’Leary.
It was just a routine play.
Caroline had scooped up a ground ball and tried to pivot. She immediately felt a twinge in her knee. The same knee that she suffered a major injury to five years prior.
She knew what had happened right away.
“It was a lot of emotions flooding back,” she said.
A torn meniscus. Just like that, all the promise she had shown in practice and all the strides she had made became moot. Her 2017 season was over.
There was no contact on the play, just awful luck.
After all, she hadn’t played much during her freshman season with the Gators, appearing in only seven games.
But Caroline had already seen the field five times in 2017, and she was finally starting to feel like she belonged on the field.
Given how advanced sports medicine has become, most players can make a full recovery from such an injury, especially if it’s their first.
It was not Caroline’s first.
Between her freshman and sophomore years of high school, Caroline suffered a serious knee injury that resulted in a torn ACL, MCL and avulsion fracture of her tibia.
Now, after her second serious injury to the same knee, her lacrosse career was in jeopardy.
“She had to come to grips with the fact that maybe her playing days were over,” her father, Chris May, said.
For a time, Caroline didn’t know if she would ever take the field again in a Gators uniform. Her dream appeared to be dead in the water.
But after months of uncertainty regarding her health, her future as a lacrosse player, and her role on the team, Caroline is finally making the impact that she always wanted to in 2018. After starting the last two games for Florida, she appears poised to start once again as the team takes on UConn tomorrow at noon in Gainesville.
But her future didn’t always appear so bright.
***
Florida was always Caroline’s top choice as a recruit.
Though the Sparks, Maryland, native had looked at — and even visited — several other schools like Maryland and Big East rival Vanderbilt, she knew she wanted to be a Gator.
It helped that her cousin, Kayla Stolins, was a member of the program’s inaugural recruiting class in 2009.
Stolins didn’t push Caroline, but the fact she had nothing but positive things to say about O’Leary and the University of Florida certainly made a difference.
“I wanted her to find somewhere she’d love,” Stolins said. “But I knew she’d love Florida.”
Though Caroline preferred playing as a defender, she made a name for herself playing midfield in high school. She stepped into that role due to a lack of offense on the Hereford High Bulls.
“She’ll play any position, as long as she gets to play,” her mother, Lauren Faby, said.
She quickly became the leading scorer for her high school team. Meanwhile, she played attacker, midfielder and defender for her club team.
Her do-whatever-it-takes attitude caught the attention of Florida’s coaching staff. While O’Leary praised her lacrosse IQ, that wasn’t the thing she loved the most about Caroline.
“She always had a smile on her face,” O’Leary said. “Fun to be around, fun to talk to.”
However, O’Leary would have to take quite a gamble on Caroline. Although her work ethic and passion for the game were undeniable, she still wasn’t 100 percent healthy. Fears over a recurring injury loomed, even though she expected to make a full recovery.
But in Caroline and her electric personality, O’Leary saw a player who loved and knew the game and would be willing to take over any role – whether it be attack, midfield or defense – to help her team.
O’Leary and her staff made Caroline a priority, and any doubts she might have had about UF were assuaged when she formally visited for the first time.
“I got invited down here and fell in love with it,” she said.
It didn’t take her long to realize Florida was the place for her. Within an hour of arriving on campus, she told her mother that she couldn’t imagine playing anywhere else.
Though still recovering from her first knee injury, Caroline committed to play college lacrosse for the Gators.
***
After arriving on campus in the summer of 2015, Caroline quickly realized just how competitive of an environment Florida’s lacrosse team was. She knew she was joining a championship contender, but she was surprised how tough it was to earn a spot.
Her freshman year, she appeared in seven games, but her only opportunities came late during blowouts while a running clock was in effect.
She was frustrated. She wanted to play.
Ever the optimist, Caroline refused to accept her role as a bench player her sophomore year. She believed that she had improved enough to see more than garbage time.
But she didn’t get the chance to show it in a high-stakes environment. After appearing in five games without making any significant contributions, the aforementioned knee injury at practice in late March derailed her season and, potentially, her career.
Lacrosse had been her passion for most of her life, and she had dreamt of playing at the collegiate level for years.
Now, that dream was on the brink.
“To get this far and have it taken away from you would be devastating,” Chris said.
Perhaps the hardest part of accepting that she may not play lacrosse again was the fact that she had yet to prove herself on the field. After all, she hadn’t played many meaningful minutes for the Gators. Playing in games that were already decided didn’t give her the opportunity to showcase her skills.
“She hadn’t gotten a chance to show what she can do,” Faby said.
Caroline knew that she wasn’t going to let the injury end her career. She was too resilient to let that be the final chapter in her lacrosse career.
***
Rehabbing from a knee injury isn’t for the faint of heart.
Caroline knew she was facing months of physical therapy before she’d be back in playing shape. And even then, she’d be non-contact in practices, severely limiting her ability to compete with the rest of the team.
On top of that, Florida had a stable of talented and experienced midfielders returning in 2018, so the path to the field was difficult.
But Caroline remained undeterred.
She spent the summer working, trying to get healthy before the fall so that she could make a statement during preseason practice.
Even though she overcame her injury, and the fears of it being career ending turned out to be false, her situation hadn’t changed. Florida simply had too many midfielders.
The thing is, midfield was never Caroline’s natural position. She always loved playing on defense.
While many players love the offensive side, dreaming of scoring game-winning goals, Caroline never felt that way.
“(Defense) is more exciting to me when you do something well,” she said.
She was in luck, because two of Florida’s starting defenders, Taylor Bresnahan and Caroline Fitzgerald, had graduated.
The Gators had an immediate need for defensive role players coming off the bench, and Caroline saw an opportunity to get on the field with regularity.
So, she made the switch to defense.
“She would adapt to whatever we threw at her,” O’Leary said. “Whatever the team needed, she was willing to do.”
Playing in her natural position, as well as finally being healthy, paid dividends for Caroline. Her improvement and drive wowed Florida’s coaches during the offseason.
“She’s given us a reason to put her out there,” O’Leary said.
Caroline’s hard work was finally paying off. As the season opener for 2018 neared, she fit into the game plan as a key reliever.
As she had learned the hard way a year before, injuries are unpredictable and often times unavoidable.
And just six games into the schedule, star senior defender Aniya Flanagan, often considered the anchor of the Florida defense, went down with an injury. Flanagan missed the following two games, a matchup with Navy on March 13 and a contest with Vanderbilt on March 18.
For the second game of that stretch, Caroline cracked the starting lineup for the first time of her collegiate career, scooping up three ground balls and causing three turnovers in an 11-10 win over the Commodores.
Flanagan returned three days later in the Gators next game against Towson, but Caroline had played too well to be relegated to the bench. Even with a healthy Flanagan back in the lineup, O’Leary chose to keep Caroline a starter.
“She couldn’t be happier. This is what she’s been waiting for,” Chris said. “Being a part of a championship team.”
After everything she’s been through, rehabilitating after two knee injuries, accepting that her lacrosse career might be over and switching positions, Caroline is finally living out her dream. She’s not just on a college lacrosse team. She’s actually contributing to the success of a top-10 program.
And she’s enjoying every second, not taking a moment of it for granted because she knows all too well how quickly it can all be taken away.
“I take every day as a blessing,” she said.
Follow Tyler Nettuno on Twitter @TylerNettuno and contact him at tnettuno@alligator.org.
Junior defender Caroline May is beginning to see her playing time increase this season after recovering from a gruesome knee injury.
