SLIPPERY ROCK — There are times when Ashley Fuller is overmatched on the wrestling mat.

She struggles for position. She strains to pull off moves that work so well in practice, but elude her in a match.

Fuller, a junior 112-pounder for the Slippery Rock High wrestling team, is 0-9 this season.

But none of that matters in the grand scheme of things. Just being on the mat is a victory for Fuller.

Alittle more than two years ago, Fuller, her older sister Chelsea and three others were in a near-fatal automobile accident on Route 108 in Slippery Rock while returning home from wrestling practice.

Ashley's pelvis fractured in five places; her left arm, right hand and collarbone all were broken. She also had internal injuries.

"I could have been dead," Fuller said. "I think about that a lot. I'm still here. At least I can still perform."

Not long after the accident, that was in doubt.

It took Fuller nearly two years to get back to wrestling. When she returned, she found many of the skills she had cultivated before the accident had escaped her.

"It was like starting over," Fuller said. "I forgot a lot of what I learned before the accident."

Still,Fuller has plugged on.

Her coach, Derek DeGraaf, has seen how hard Fuller has worked to regain the form that made her a promising young wrestler when she was a freshman.

"Everyone likes having Ashley around," DeGraaf said. "There aren't many females in this sport, and for her to endure what she is, I can't image how hard that is for her."

Fuller has to see a chiropractor after almost every match.

Her hips ache. Her lower back throbs.

When the day is over, she is nearly mummified in ice.

"I feel sore most of the time," Fuller said.

Fuller said her mother didn't want her to wrestle again and cringes every time she is thrown by much-stronger male wrestlers.

But Fuller never yields.

She is the first to admit her wrestling skills are nowhere near where she wants them to be.

"I had two years off and I'm a junior, so I'm wrestling boys who have gotten stronger," Fuller said. "I'm struggling."

But she has received a lot of support, and her teammates rally around Fuller before each match.

When she is feeling particularly down, she has her biggest fan waiting for her at home: Chelsea Fuller.

"She's really optimistic," Ashley said. "When I say I have no chance to win, she always tells me not to think like that, that I always have a chance and that I am good enough."

Fuller is happy to have her sister around.

Chelsea, who was a senior on the Rockets' wrestling team at the time of the accident, nearly died from her injuries. She was in a coma for 18 days.

Chelsea never returned to wrestling, but she now is a student at Slippery Rock University, where she plays intramural soccer.

"It's so great having her around," Ashley said.

With her teammates and her sister behind her, Ashley Fuller plans to continue working.

In the offseason, she said she wants to enter some female-only wrestling events to gauge her progress and then return to the Rockets for her senior season.

No matter what she achieves in wrestling, just competing gives her a sense of accomplishment.

"I think I'm getting better," she said. "At least I am alive."