Royal’s Adamson Regaining Her Soccer Legs

The Royal High girls’ soccer team ended its season Saturday with a 2-0 loss to Agoura in the third-place match of the Marmonte League tournament, but for Highlander senior Kelly Adamson things are looking up all the same.

Adamson, who missed the 1993-94 season and most of this winter’s schedule because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, was glad to return to action, if only briefly.

Considered one of California’s top female soccer players before the injury, Adamson took a final strength test for the injured joint Jan. 19 and graded out at 95%. She played her first match in more than a year the next day against Newbury Park and wound up contributing three goals and two assists in six games before Saturday’s loss to the Chargers knocked Royal (13-1, 5-7) out of Southern Section playoff contention.

“She’s not close to being what she was before the injury and her conditioning needs a little more work, but with that type of injury you couldn’t ask for more than what she gave,” Royal Coach Andy Silva said. “Her coming back brought the level of our other girls up.”

Adamson was ecstatic about her return but not her performance.

“It’s kind of hard to say that I was happy with the way I was playing because I got frustrated a lot,” said Adamson, who signed a letter of intent Feb. 8 to play at Stanford. “I wanted to jump in and play at the level I was at before I got hurt. That wasn’t realistic but it was part of the healing process.”

Adamson will now move from high school soccer to practices and matches with her club team, the Las Virgenes Blazers, and she plans to attend a U.S. under-19 national team camp in the summer before heading to Palo Alto in the fall.

“I’m going to give myself two more months to get myself back to the level I was at,” Adamson said. “I’m trying to get back into game shape and regain my touch on the ball.”