Player’s Recovery Breathes Life Into Tartans

St. Margaret’s senior Allison Bendush sat in the emergency room, looked at her injured knee and trembled at the doctor’s words:

Your volleyball playing days are over. You may have trouble walking again.

But Bendush never believed the bad news she received last year. After 10 months of physical therapy and rehabilitation, she is walking fine. And she’s back on the court.

Bendush’s strong play has helped St. Margaret’s advance to tonight’s Southern Section Division V-AA championship match against Palos Verdes Chadwick at 7 p.m. at Cypress College.

It’s the first appearance in a section girls’ volleyball final for the Tartans since 1991.

“This is what we’ve been talking about since our sophomore year,” Bendush said. “We thought we had the team to win it all last year, but . . .”

During an Academy League match on Sept. 29, 1998 at Downey Calvary Chapel, Bendush went down after a spike attempt, and her 1998 championship dreams followed.

“I took my normal approach,” she said, “and I just came down funny.”

The result, Bendush said, was a dislocated knee, along with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, torn medial collateral ligament and . . .

“My knee was a mess,” she said. “After hearing the emergency room doctor, later that week we went to another doctor who told me there was a possibility that I could play again.

“That’s all I needed to hear.”

The long road back wasn’t pleasant. Bendush was on crutches for two months and sat on the sideline as her St. Margaret’s teammates won another league title and reached the section semifinals.

Bendush’s painful rehabilitation began, and although she helped St. Margaret’s Coach Susie Maga coach the boys’ team in the spring, she still couldn’t play and sat out the entire club season. But she returned to the court this fall.

“It’s a fairy tale,” said Laguna Beach Volleyball Club Coach Michael Soylular, who has coached Bendush since she was a fifth-grader. “Most people wouldn’t have even considered coming back after a knee injury like that.

“I mean, it wasn’t just an ACL injury but a major, major reconstruction. But she’s always been very determined. She never fooled around in the gym. She is all business.”

That approach helped Bendush return to playing in mid-July, and she was practicing with her St. Margaret’s teammates in August.

“There were just timing problems and adjusting to wearing a big brace,” Maga said. “But she got used to it.”

And by the first week of September at the Santa Barbara Laguna Blanca tournament, Bendush was beginning to feel comfortable again.

“Maybe I can’t jump quite as high as I used to,” said Bendush, who is being recruited by several Ivy League schools. “But you compensate in other ways to get the ball down. I think it made me a smarter player.”

Said Maga: “Her court sense was always so great and I couldn’t imagine it getting any better, but it did.”

The Tartans’ championship prospects looked bright, considering that the other returners included setter Marissa Balak, outside hitter Jenny Busch and opposite hitter Aynsley Andrews, all seniors.

Monique Kettler, a 6-foot-2 junior middle blocker, is an athletic player who has blossomed as the season progressed, and sophomore middle blocker Kylie Hill provided another potent offensive weapon.

Bendush’s younger sister, Polly, and Balak’s younger sister, Mara, both freshmen, have given St. Margaret’s depth off the bench.

“This is the best team I’ve had here in my four years,” Maga said. “It’s not a team that I looked at in the beginning of the season and said, ‘Yeah, this is going to be my best team.’

“But they’ve really pulled together. We’ve never had a team with five players in the lineup who can go up and put the ball away.”

No matter how it’s analyzed, Bendush knows she’s ready to seize the moment.

“We’re excited,” she said. “We know if we play our best, no one can beat us.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Girls’ Volleyball

* What: Southern Section championships

* Where: Cypress College, 9200 Valley View St., Cypress

* Tonight: 7--Division V-AA: St. Margaret’s vs. Palos Verdes Chadwick in Gym I; 7--Division III-AA: Torrance Bishop Montgomery vs. North Hollywood Harvard Westlake in Gym II

* Saturday: 10 a.m.--Division II-A: West Covina South Hills vs. Lakewood St. Joseph in Gym II; 10:30--Division IV-AA: Laguna Beach vs. Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in Gym I; 1 p.m.--Division II-AA: Santa Margarita vs. South Torrance in Gym II; 1:30--Division V-A: Thousand Oaks Hillcrest Christian vs. Hemet Baptist Christian in Gym I; 4:30--Division I-A: Mater Dei vs. Santa Barbara San Marcos in Gym II; 6:30--Division IV-A: Calvary Chapel vs. L.A. Brentwood in Gym I; 7:30--Division I-AA: Newport Harbor vs. Manhattan Beach Mira Costa in Gym II

* Admission: $6 general admission, $3 for children under 12

* Information: (562) 860-2414