It was the girls varsity volleyball team’s “Dig Pink” game against the Newton South Lions. Supporters milled into the stands, volleyballs bounced off the net and cheers echoed across the Schluntz Gymnasium as the athletes warmed up. On just her second hit during warm-ups, sophomore and outside hitter Noga Naveh came down hard on her left knee and felt a pop. Just like that, Naveh’s season ended.
Naveh began playing volleyball in second grade and, from there, her passion only grew. Early on, she joined SMASH, a high-level New England club volleyball team. As a freshman, she made the varsity team and was recognized as a Bay State Conference All-Star.
Head coach Caitlin Sobolewski said that Naveh, since her first year on varsity, has inspired confidence within the team.
“She has a lot of confidence that our team typically doesn’t have out there and whether she believes she has the confidence when she’s playing volleyball or not, even off the volleyball court, I can see that she’s not afraid to go out and play [and] really connect with her teammates,” Sobolewski said.
Although she’s only a sophomore, Naveh has been able to unify the team through her skill and presence. Teammate and friend Bella Bacon said Naveh’s personality shines and allows her to lead the team.
“She definitely helps our team with our serve receive and our serving, and then obviously she’s an all-around player,” Bacon said. “Off the court, she is very talkative, very bright and I feel like she just has a lot of things to say.”
Naveh had many hopes for this season: enhancing her skill and contributions with every game, building a winning record and leading her team to the Final Four. Her season, however, was heartbreakingly cut short when she tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in warm-ups, just prior to the team’s game against Newton South.
“I always land left-right after I hit. So when I landed left-right this time, and I landed probably on [the] left too much, I don’t really know, my left knee just popped,” Naveh said. “I didn’t fall or anything, but then Emilie came and helped me and I told her, ‘I think I just tore my ACL.’ I don’t even know why I said that, but I was correct.”
Naveh discovered that she had tears in both of her menisci, a tear in her ACL and a partial tear in her medial collateral ligament (MCL). Despite this injury, Naveh is committed to maintaining a positive mindset throughout her recovery. She said that this injury has given her perspective on the sport that she has grown up playing.
“I’ll definitely see a new perspective on life. I’ll definitely value volleyball more because I know that now, at any point, volleyball can be taken away from me,” Naveh said. “I will try to put in as much hard work as I can to get back to it but then also take the time to spend it on more of academics and social-wise and stuff that I didn’t have time to do before.”
As a sophomore, Soboleski endured a season-ending injury as well. Reflecting on her own experiences, Sobolewski hopes that Naveh can remain connected to her teammates, even if she is no longer able to play.
“The biggest thing is I just want her to keep showing up for her teammates because the hardest thing is when you lose the ability to play and you can’t be [at] your sport anymore. It takes away a lot of what you know yourself as. Especially being only a sophomore in high school,” Sobolewski said. “I just hope that she stays present with the team.”
Season-ending injuries, ACL tears, in particular, are many athletes’ worst nightmare. However, Soboleski said that this injury is only a minor obstacle in Naveh’s career. She has no doubt that Naveh, fueled by her work ethic and love for the sport, will come back even stronger than before.
“It’s going to be such a short period in her life where she is going to have this injury and she’s going to come back,” Sobolewski said. “I know she’s a really hard worker and she’s going to rehab and she’s going to come back next year and be back in the same spot, if not better than she was when she came in this season.”
