For one Ball State University women's tennis player, the inability to recover from a back injury has ended her collegiate tennis career.
After junior Stephanie Farrar met with her doctor, Kenneth Haller of Central Indiana Orthopedics, and Casey Chambers, assistant athletic trainer, April 10, it was decided she would no longer play at the collegiate level because of a ruptured disc.
"With all the training and everything, my body can't handle it anymore," Farrar said. "It's going to take awhile for my back to recover since treatment has shown signs that it does help."
The Phoenix resident was initially injured when she fell during a match against DePaul University in February 2006. However, she completed the season, receiving daily treatment to play through the injury. She finished the 2005-06 season with a singles record of 16-12 - playing at No. 2 singles - and 20-7 in doubles.
At the conclusion of the Mid-American Conference Tournament last April, Farrar took an eight-month break from tennis in hopes of healing her injured back. However, as soon as Farrar got back into full conditioning, the pain came back, she said.
"It's very disappointing," Farrar said. "It's a process because I would get treatment and it would get to a point where everything would be OK. Once I started increasing my activity, that's when [the treatment] just didn't work anymore and it continually hurt."
Farrar said she received a medical disqualification. According to the NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook, it means the team physician has the final responsibility to determine when a student-athlete is removed or withheld from participation due to an injury, an illness or pregnancy.
She will not lose her athletic scholarship, however, because the injury occurred while at Ball State. Farrer will also continue receiving treatment for her back as well.
Coach Kathy Bull said this is the first time she has run into a situation like this in 23 years of coaching.
"Steph's a great person," Bull said. "For her to not be able to fulfill her dream of seeing how good of a tennis player she can be is discouraging. She sees her teammates going on and traveling and she gets left behind. It's something I don't think you hear of very often in tennis."
This season, Farrar played nine doubles matches, compiling a 6-3 record. Her last match was April 4, in which she and Polina Askerko lost to Ashley Jakupin and Samantha Kintzel of Bowling Green State University 8-4.
Her freshman year, she went 23-6 in singles and 20-16 in doubles.
"We've had a huge ripple-down effect," Bull said. "I've always wondered where we'd be if Steph was at 100 percent. I think we'd be in the top three in the MAC."
Farrar said she will miss competing the most.
"I'm a very competitive person, so I'm really going to miss playing matches and playing against other people," she said.
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