Celebrating enthusiastically with her teammates following a huge conference win, redshirt sophomore outside hitter Christina DenBoer showed her excitement to be back on the court with her teammates playing the sport that she loves. DenBoer has handled the difficult road back from two major injuries with amazing determination and toughness.
Many players would give up after two missed seasons, but DenBoer credits her resolve to get back on the court and compete with her team as what drove her through the difficult recovery process.
“It was a hard decision, but I’m super competitive with myself, plus I love volleyball and I love the whole program. I love my coach, I love the girls so I wanted to stay longer. It wasn’t a problem for me,” DenBoer said.
Often, rust can develop with pressure and lack of playing time during games. However, DenBoer is regaining that confidence every time she steps on the court.
“It’s been two years, I’m a senior and a redshirt sophomore. It’s hard to get back in that stressful situation and be successful in those stressful situations. I’ve definitely been getting more confidence, still building that confidence back, and hopefully in a couple games I won’t even worry about it anymore,” DenBoer said.
In time DenBoer, along with her coach and team, hopes to have her at full health. For now it is up to her and the coaching staff to handle the lingering pains from two years of injury.
“Her journey has been up and down, like hiking the Himalayas,” said head coach Aaron Seltzer. “She’s had good days and bad days. We thought we were gonna have her last year and that didn’t work out.”
With her return, DenBoer has brought to the team energy and excitement, both very useful attributes in any locker room .
“The girl hasn’t played for two years and she’s been waiting and waiting to play. She brings a lot of energy and excitement and just a joy of playing… She’s happy to play whether it’s good or bad, and that gives everybody a lift,” Seltzer said.
DenBoer also recognizes the need for that energy, and she hopes to bring it every single day, in practice and in games.
“We need to keep up that energy and intensity. One thing that we need to do is start bringing that more into our practices. Once we bring that into our practices it’ll be of a regular thing for our games and then it’ll just be a norm for our team to be pumped all the time,” DenBoer said.
She certainly brought it Monday night against previously undefeated PacWest opponent Chaminade University. DenBoer had a monster night, recording 10 kills, four aces and seven digs to help lead her team to a straight-set win.
So far this season, DenBoer has put up excellent numbers, tallying 55 kills, eight aces, seven blocks and 34 digs in only 20 sets of play. That set total could be increased with time as she and the Eagles’ coaching and training staff find best how to treat the lingering injury.
The future is bright for DenBoer as she finally enters her second season of play with the Eagles. For right now, though, fans, teammates and coaches are all overjoyed to have her back.
