May 14, 2024, was another day of volleyball practice for Gabi Maas. But the trajectory for Wichita State’s starting libero’s junior season plummeted in an instant.
During a drill, Maas jumped up for a hit and, on the way down, her knee buckled and her leg gave out. Immediately, she knew something wasn’t right. Teammates and coaches evacuated the gym at the sight of her knee bending sideways in an unnatural position.
Maas dislocated her patella and simultaneously tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial cruciate ligament (MCL) and meniscus, ending her junior season before it started. Maas said she’ll never forget that day. She remembers thinking, “My volleyball season is over — my volleyball career is over.”
“That’s all I could think about,” she said. “That I wasn’t going to be able to play this season, which is exactly what ended up happening.”
A week later, Maas went through a knee reconstruction surgery and has been on the road to recovery since.
Surgery and support
During Maas’ surgery, her doctors needed to take out part of her quadricep muscle to repair her torn ACL. From there, she had work done on her meniscus and knee capsule, the structure surrounding her knee.
Luckily for Maas, her MCL healed naturally, preventing another surgery.
“Thank God for that,” Maas said. “I wouldn’t have been able to handle that … because MCL (surgeries) are a whole other ball game.”
Maas was discharged from the hospital on the same day of the surgery. Her surgery experience was a little different than most.
“A lot of people that get ACL surgery, they walk into the surgery and come out on crutches, right?” Maas said. “I walked in on crutches because my leg was a mess, so that was different … I was the opposite.”
Throughout her recovery process, Maas’ family — her mother Jana, father Dustin and brother Jack — have played a vital role in supporting her. Maas’ mother also went through ACL surgery in the past.
“They’ve been incredible,” Maas said. “I call them all the time and just vent to them about things I’m going through and how I’m feeling. They are back in Colorado, so it’s hard (sometimes) … But they have been so supportive and so great … they (would) do anything for me.”
Maas’ brother was graduating from high school at the time of her surgery. He insisted Gabi’s parents attend the surgery instead of his graduation to make sure she was OK.
“He’s like, ‘You go help Gabi,’” Maas said. “So like, even down to my brother’s (support) has been amazing because if I was him, I would want my parents at his graduation. But he was like, ‘This is not as important as my sister getting surgery.’”
Maas’ teammates have also played a supporting role in her recovery.
“They’re amazing,” Maas said. “I mean, I literally could not ask for more. The day I found out that I tore my ACL, I came to practice, obviously more upset, and they had bought me … a little gift basket and gift cards, they wrote a note to me.”
Fellow libero Reagan Anderson said she and Maas still do the same bonding activities together, making sure things don’t change in their relationship.
“We still do all the things that we did before,” Anderson said. “We do things to help keep her mind off of it … And next week is coming up on six months (since Maas’ injury) so we’re going to go to dinner and we’re going to go celebrate it because it’s been a long time and she’s doing great.”
Training and returning for play
Maas said she started recovery and training the day after her surgery. It began with “very basic stuff” like lifting her leg up and down and getting mobility in her ankles without putting any weight on her knee.
Eventually, she went to her hometown in Aurora, Colorado, and spent six weeks going through physical therapy to begin walking again.
Once she returned to Wichita, she began working with Wichita State’s Assistant Director of Sports Medicine Kat Hollowell. Hollowell said she has been rigorous with Maas while keeping her workouts within what’s reasonable for knee recoveries.
“I’ve tried to really capture her competitive side to make it a little more interesting but also more challenging for her,” Hollowell said. “She’s not the kind of person who can do boring rehab, day in and day out. We’ve had to find some creative ways to make things a little bit more interesting for her and challenge that competitive side without making it too difficult.”
Hollowell has implemented the use of a volleyball in Maas’ training for both a mental and physical challenge.
“She might be doing balancing, where she’s passing or setting a ball to herself,” Hollowell said. “And she has to maintain balance without falling off either a pad or one of these boards we have that tilts.”
The next step in the process is a “return to volleyball progression.”
“Like any general knee injury, you have to do your cardio, you do running, (and a) running progression,” Hollowell said. “(Then) you do long endurance running, sprinting, then you do your volleyball-specific activities.”
Maas said she is on course to be fully cleared for play by February 2025. By the time the 2025 season rolls around in the fall, she hopes to be “the Gabi that people watch play.”
New role
Since being sidelined, Maas has found herself as the team’s “listener,” being there for her teammates when they have struggles or need someone to talk to.
“I’ve kind of always been that person for a lot of the girls,” Maas said. “But even more so (now) because I have more time to listen to what’s going on and just kind of give them advice, like how to handle certain situations and what’s going on.”
Anderson said Maas has been terrific as a vocal leader.
“She motivates us, gives us a lot of motivational talks in the locker room,” Anderson said. “I think she has done a great job of helping us and encouraging us. She’s just been a great teammate throughout this whole thing.”
Maas has also found herself becoming akin to a player-coach, a player who can view the game through the lens of a coach.
“Since I don’t have to play, I see a lot of interactions that happen on the court,” Maas said. “I see a lot of stuff that a coach would normally see.”
After the team’s first tournament of the season, Maas’ teammates chipped in and bought her a clipboard so she could take notes and scout other teams, which keeps her engaged in the game.
“I was just using my planner,” Maas said. “And so they got me a specific little clipboard with my name and stuff on it, which was really nice.”
Being away from the game
For the last six months, Maas has been away from the sport she loves the most. She said the mental challenge of not being on the court has been difficult for her.
“I feel guilty a lot of the time,” Maas said. “The guilt of like, ‘I can’t play for my team,’ and I feel like they’ve been missing me, (which) is hard (to deal with). And so that’s been, mentally, the hardest thing ever in my life.”
Though she misses competing with the team, Maas said her journey to recovery has helped to put things in perspective.
“Yes, this is hard,” Maas said. “However, I’m lucky that I even have the opportunity to play college athletics, and I’m surrounded by such an amazing training staff because not everyone gets that … I could have a career-ending injury and never be allowed to play again, but like, I’m lucky enough that I am going to come back from this.”
Hollowell shared the sentiment.
“I feel like she’s matured a lot,” Hollowell said. “She’s kind of become a leader on the team (and) she always was, but I think now because she sees it (the game) from a different perspective, she’s able to give real-time feedback to people … whether it’s volleyball related, personality-related, team chemistry related. (She’s able to) stand up and say something.”
When she returns, fans of Wichita State volleyball can look forward to the high-energy Maas they knew before.
“When she’s out there, she’s going to give it her all,” Anderson said. “She’s a very consistent player, she passes great all the time so (the fans) can look forward to her being just like she was last year — if not even better.”
