SEATTLE — Another Snohomish County native on the University of Washington women’s basketball team will not play this season because of injury.
Junior guard Kristin O’Neill told The Herald Thursday that she is out for the season because a magnetic resonance imaging test revealed a stress fracture in her left foot is more severe than originally believed. It was thought that O’Neill, a former Meadowdale High School star, might be back for the Pacific-10 Conference season, but that won’t be the case. She hasn’t played in a game this season.
"The way it was explained to me, there are five degrees of fractures and mine is a four," O’Neill said. "It’s disappointing."
O’Neill will redshirt this season and have two more years of eligibility. She is the third Snohomish County player forced out because of injury. Both Kayla Burt (heart condition) of Arlington and Kirsten Brockman (foot stress fractures) of Snohomish had to retire because of health reasons.
Another Husky, Sarah Keeler, decided to end her playing career at the end of last season because of a series of knee injuries.
"It’s been an interesting transition from being on the court to being on the sidelines," O’Neill said. "Being in the unique situation of being with (Burt, Brockman and Keeler), it’s given me great perspective into what it’s been like for them. I know I’m going to be coming back, not this season, which is a disappointment, but I’m looking forward to having two healthy seasons."
It also was announced Thursday that sophomore guard Erica Schelly will miss the rest of the season because of a broken left foot.
Schelly, of Fort Collins, Colo., broke the fifth metatarsal bone in the foot in Washington’s first day of practice, Oct. 18, and later underwent surgery. She, also, will redshirt the season.
The news comes on the eve of a much-anticipated game between the No. 24 Huskies (6-1) and third-ranked Texas Tech (9-0) tonight at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Were O’Neill healthy, it would have meant a great matchup between her and the Red Raiders’ Jia Perkins, one of the nation’s great guards, who averages 18.1 points a game.
"She’s a person, I believe, who can guard just about anybody in the country," UW coach June Daugherty said of O’Neill.
O’Neill’s injury brings to an end a frustrating several months in which she caught a severe strain of mononucleosis and could not participate in off-season conditioning. In fact, she could do little physically from the beginning of April to the beginning of August. She even had to withdraw from school.
"I was trying to make a serious comeback from August to when our season started," O’Neill said. "By the first day of practice, I was able to do little more than walk. That was disappointing in itself, being so sick with mono that I wasn’t even able to get out of bed."
O’Neill started all but 10 games last season for the Huskies. One of the team’s top defensive players, the 6-foot-1 guard averaged 5.7 points and 4.1 rebounds a game as a sophomore. She also had 51 steals, tying her with Giuliana Mendiola for the team lead.
"Obviously, Kristen rested so long that we thought we were going to have some good news," Daugherty said. "This is the worst news we could get."
As a freshman last year, Schelly came off the bench in 19 games, averaging 1 point and 0.3 rebounds a game.
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