Beleaguered by injury and illness, Liza Blue’s path has taken many undesirable detours.

When things went awry, and they often did, she would call her high school lacrosse coach, Jessica Roguski Onheiser, in search of a definitive direction.

“Why do you play? Why do you want to play?” Onheiser asked.

Onheiser, who played lacrosse at Vanderbilt and coached at Loyola Maryland, stripped away the external factors.

They discussed mental toughness. The conversations reminded Blue of her passion for lacrosse.

Now a senior at Virginia (12-8, 3-4 Atlantic Coast), Blue committed herself to the game and it’s paid off. She’s emerged as one of the Cavaliers’ leaders while starting in every game this season, after an injury in her first year at UVA forced her to drop her field hockey aspirations and zero in on lacrosse.

This year, Blue leads Virginia with 55 goals and has won 56 draw controls. She’s finally showing the same dazzling play that she flaunted at Garrison Forest (Md.) School located 12 miles from Johnny Unitas Stadium —where UVA will face Syracuse (20-2, 6-1) in the NCAA tournament semifinals on Friday at 5 p.m.

“She’s matured a lot through her heartache and disappointment,” UVA head coach Julie Myers said.

At Garrison Forest, Blue excelled in both lacrosse and field hockey, and intended to play both as an incoming freshman at Virginia.

She had amazed both Onheiser and Traci Davis, the field hockey coach at GFS, with a knack for making game-changing plays, especially in the playoffs. Davis said she thinks Blue was actually better at field hockey.

Though playing two college sports was a daunting task, Blue was surrounded by mentors who had done it themselves.

Davis was an All-American in both field hockey and lacrosse in college. Myers also played the same two sports for the Cavaliers. Blue’s mother Liz was on both the club tennis team and club rowing team at UVA.

But Division I offseason training is much more demanding, and players can’t afford to play a sport only half the time. After Blue’s first field hockey season, a stress fracture in her shin forced Blue to redshirt for the 2011 lacrosse season.

She agonizingly chose to drop field hockey after the stress fracture to concentrate on lacrosse — the sport that she had been playing for longer — because playing two Division I sports was not conducive to staying healthy and accomplishing her goals.

“It’s been good focusing on the one and trying to grow,” Blue said. “Be a stronger athlete in one, rather than kind of average in two.”

Once Blue was healthy, she started 16 times in her second year with the Cavaliers’ lacrosse team, but didn’t fully emerge, totaling 19 points in as many games. Then in 2013, Blue missed the first seven games of the season due to mononucleosis and never found a rhythm.

But she never gave up.

“I think she just dug deep,” her mother said.

Whenever Blue was home over the summer or for winter break, she worked tirelessly with a trainer to stay fit. She limited her sugar intake and added more vegetables and protein to her diet.

And after all of the ups and downs, Blue has materialized as a reliable offensive threat.

“I think Liza’s always been a deadly player,” UVA junior attack Casey Bocklet said, “but I think this year we really started to use her a lot more and I think she realized just how good she really is.”

Virginia reached the final four in Blue’s one field hockey season in 2010. UVA’s women’s lacrosse team hadn’t advanced past the NCAA tournament quarterfinals since 2007, but Blue’s postseason experience made her able to help change that this year.

“I feel like I have a little bit in my back pocket about how to go through it all,” Blue said.

Since the first time Onheiser watched Blue play, she has been waiting for Blue to make a difference on the collegiate level.

Onheiser told Blue during some of her lowest points that overcoming her unforeseen challenges would build stronger character in the long run.

And now, after everything Blue’s devoted, Onheiser’s projection seems to have come true.

“She’s had four years now to just kind of learn how to be tough,” Myers said, “know what to suck up, know how hard she can push herself and she’s just in a really good spot in life.”

Published on May 21, 2014 at 11:15 pm

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