Cait Baxter. Marissa Siebka. Morgan Siebka. Lydia Dennis. Bre Northcott. Karli Paracca. Amber Fichter. Maggie Sarver. Olivia Haefner. Sedona Campbell.

And now Jenna Whitmer.

What do these names have in common? They are just a few in a long list of Butler County female athletes who have suffered a torn ACL.

And some have suffered the catastrophic knee injury more than once.

No one is immune to knee injuries — it’s part of the risk of playing any sport — but female athletes are up to eight times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than their male counterparts.

There are many reasons for this.

None of those explanations help when it happens, however. It’s always devastating.

“I think the worst part was not being able to participate in the sport,” said Dennis, who suffered the first of her two ACL injuries while playing soccer for Mars. Now a red-shirt freshman at the University of Pittsburgh, Dennis is rehabilitating her second ACL injury. “Sitting out was awful.”

It’s a sentiment shared by many athletes who suffer this kind of injury. The helpless feeling of watching while their teammates compete is overwhelming.

Marissa Siebka had to sit out most of her junior year with the Slippery Rock High girls basketball team after her knee buckled and her ACL snapped eight games into the season.

“Having what I love the most taken from me, which is basketball, of course, and having to watch from the side without being able to play was the worst for me,” she said.

Slippery Rock has been particularly stung by the ACL bug. The Rockets also lost one of their best post players in Campbell before the 2014-15 even started.

Just last week at a camp at the University of North Carolina, Whitmer went down with a knee injury and is out for the year.

These young women are not alone.

According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, approximately 200,000 cases of ACL injuries are reported annually and 100,000 reconstructive surgeries are performed.

About 70 percent of the ACL injuries occurred in non-contact situations.

Surgical techniques have changed, however. What was once a one-year recovery time has shrunk to sometimes as low as six months.

Most players return to at or near their prior skill level. It’s not the career death nail it used to be.

Still, it doesn’t get back that precious time that is lost.

Marissa Siebka hopes to be an inspiration to Whitmer just as her sister, Morgan, who has suffered two ACL injuries, has been an inspiration to her.

“I know they are both strong enough to get back better than ever,” Marissa Siebka said. “And it will make their passion to play the game even stronger because that’s exactly how it is for me.”

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.