RIMERSBURG — The tears came suddenly for Lexey Shick as the realization she had been trying to deny hit her.

She wouldn’t be able to play for the Union volleyball team in her senior season.

Her final basketball season with the Damsels was also in jeopardy.

A torn ACL — an all too common injury among female athletes — was to blame.

“I cried a couple of times,” Shick said. “I got emotional.”

But Shick was hit with other emotions Tuesday in a volleyball match against Cranberry.

Joy.

Pride.

Exhilaration.

With her left knee in a brace and less than three months after major reconstructive surgery, Shick was on the court with her teammates, serving 10 straight points in a 3-0 sweep of the Berries.

Shick can only serve — she is not cleared to play the libero position where she has excelled for the past two years with Union — but just being in uniform and contributing was enough.

“It meant the world to me,” Shick said. “It’s my last year playing volleyball and I thought I was going to miss the whole thing. As long as I can do something to help the team, it makes me happy.

“It was a blessing,” she added, “to just be able to serve.”

Shick suffered her knee injury May 28 in an AAU basketball game.

She knew immediately it was severe.

“I felt a twist when I jumped up and when I landed, I went to the floor and it swelled up right away,” Shick said. “I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t walk on it. I couldn’t even stand on it.”

Her ACL was completely torn and after a month of physical therapy just to get ready for surgery, Shick went under the knife on June 29.

Shick’s recovery continues to be grueling.

“I almost have my range of motion completely back,” Shick said. “I’ve been putting in extra work on my own. I do exercises at home. I sit in my bed and pull my knee back to try to loosen up that scar tissue.

“Some days I take a little break,” Shick added. “PT is rough. It’s the pain. The pain was so bad at first, but you have to do it. Now it’s getting better, I’m happy to see the progress.”

Shick is ahead of schedule in her recovery, which led her doctor to release her to serve on the volleyball court.

When she serves, she hangs back behind the baseline and tries to help her team verbally as much as possible.

“Actually, we do really well with it,” Shick said. “I have faith in them and I talk to them, tell them what angle the ball is coming.”

It never occurred to Shick to simply serve until she was hitting balls at practice and drew the eye of Union volleyball coach Julie Cloak.

“She said, ‘Lexey, can you serve in a game? Would your doctor clear you to do that?’” Shick said. “When I saw the doctor he said he didn’t see a problem with that as long as I wore a brace and played behind.”

Shick led the team in service points and aces last season. She also led the Damsels in digs and was second in kills.

She was perfecting a jump serve before the injury. She’s had to table that for the time being.

Still, Shick has been plenty potent with her serve.

“She’s a little girl,” Cloak said. “But she has power.”

And she had added a spark to the team.

“For the past three years, she has been a big part of our team,” Cloak said. “Her freshman year, she was mainly just a server, but the last two years she’s been big for us in the back row. It was a big loss for us.

“Lexey has been that cheerleader for the team,” Cloak added. “She cheered them on and rallied them up and now that she is back, even in this limited basis, it is just awesome. It’s very exciting.”