“I’m feeling good right now,” Austria said. “It seems like it’s been forever. It’s good to be back.”
Austria enters her fifth season with 806 career points, putting her in range of becoming the 24th player in school history to score 1,000 points. She would be the fourth player from the 2015 Elite Eight team to reach that milestone. Andrea Hoover (1,848), Ally Malott (1,504) and Amber Deane (1,056) preceded her.
Austria also ranks sixth in UD history in steals (172), fourth in free-throw percentage (82.3), 13th in 3-pointers (91) and fifth in 3-point percentage (37.6).
“There’s no question she’s one of the best players to ever play here,” Dayton coach Shauna Green said. “Just across the board what she brings to our team, it’s not just a score, it’s not just a pass, she does everything. She’s one of the best defenders. She’s one of the best 3-point shooters. She just makes plays. She makes people better.”
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Austria suffered the injury in the seventh game last season. If she had played in two more games, she would have been ineligible to receive a medical redshirt. While that was a stroke of luck, the injury was the opposite. She suffered the same injury in the other knee 16 games into her sophomore year.
Because of that first experience, Austria knew what had happened as soon as it happened.
“It was pretty similar,” she said. “You can feel it tear. It’s weird. I was pretty upset. I thought I was done playing.”
Austria had surgery in early January. Dr. Matthew Lawless, of Wright State Physicians, performed the surgery. He also repaired her first ACL tear and repaired Austria’s younger brother Andrew’s torn ACL.
Austria said the first week after the surgery was painful but it got better after that. Her teammates supported her by sending care packages, including coloring books and a big jar of pickles.
“I love pickles,” Austria said.
The Flyers were 6-1 when Austria got hurt. They lost three of their last four non-conference games and finished 14-15 overall and 7-9 in the A-10. Deane suffered a leg injury two games after Austria and missed the rest of the season.
“Last year was a struggle,” Austria said. “It was hard to watch.”
Austria participated in individual workouts in the offseason but couldn’t do live-contact drills. She was as shocked as everyone when Jim Jabir stepped down Sept. 7 but excited by the return of Green.
Things have returned to normal for the team, Austria said. The Flyers brought a lot of energy to the first practice Tuesday even though it started at 6 a.m.
“(Green) brings a lot of energy,” Austria said. “That helps with our morning practices.”
Green said Austria looked like her normal self at the first practice, and she saw Austria rebound from her first injury to become a key cog with the Elite Eight team so knows Austria can do it again.
“We’ll monitor her,” Green said. “I’m going to be really smart with her. If she has some bad days, we’ll do whatever we have to do to make sure she’s OK this year.”
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