CB West senior attack Ueland signs with Lafayette after recovery from major knee surgery

By Laura Frankenfield
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 1/18/10

Central Bucks West senior attack Tori Ueland has signed a National Letter of Intent to play Division I lacrosse at Lafayette College.

Ueland received honorable mention as a freshman, Second Team All League as a sophomore and Third Team All League as a junior after coming back from major knee surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

After tearing her ACL in her last game of the season as a sophomore, when she tallied 42 goals, Ueland was worried about getting recruited. “I had emailed a bunch of coaches and told them about my injury, but it’s hard to think about a player when you can’t see them play,” she said.

Due to the injury she couldn’t play for the summer before her junior year, a crucial time in the recruiting process.

Luckily, Ueland’s coach at Ultimate Goal, Ali Fisher, also the head coach at Lafayette, showed interest.  “Ali Fisher had seen me play before the injury and knew my potential and how dedicated I was to recovering to 100 prcent,” said Ueland, who is undecided on a major but is considering Engineering and Health Science.

Ueland said even before the injury that she had Lafayette at the top of her list. “The few times I had visited the campus I really loved it; it was so pretty,” she said. “I could really picture myself there and I knew it was an excellent school.”

Wanting to go to a smaller school close to home, Ueland found Lafayette to be a perfect fit. At Lafayette, Ueland will be joined by Philly recruits Meghan Curtin (Penn Charter, goalie), Ana White (Strath Haven, midfielder) and Lindsay Yang (Springside School, attack).

Ueland has high hopes for Central Bucks West this year, “We have a new coach (former CB East and Vanderbilt great Tara Schmucker) this year and I really hope that our team will be able to click. I think that’s really important.”