Erika Pritchard overcame injury to become an emerging star in Pro Volleyball Federation.
Story by Steve Vedder / Photo by Nicolas Carrillo
Erika Pritchard knew immediately something terrible had happened to her left knee, but she never suspected how it would change her life.
When the Grand Rapids Rise outside hitter tore her ACL while playing in Switzerland during the 2022-23 season, she knew she faced months of grueling rehabilitation. What she couldn't have foreseen was how that path would not only force her to see volleyball in a different light but also teach her to view life through a new perspective.
It was a long, dark road, but Pritchard emerged bathed in light.
"It taught me to be okay without volleyball," said Pritchard, a fourth-year pro in her second season with the Rise. "And I think it forced me to find joy in other things and find out who I was outside volleyball."
It's a lesson the native of Frederick, Maryland, may never have learned if she hadn’t hurt her knee while playing for the VBC Cheseaux club in Switzerland. Pritchard had escaped serious injury during four sterling seasons in high school, but her career was then dotted with physical challenges. She suffered a stress fracture to her left foot as a freshman at the University of Maryland, and then another to her right foot as a sophomore.
After four standout seasons at Maryland, where she became the school's all-time points leader (1,790), and then a fifth year at Penn State, Pritchard played one season in France, where another stress fracture sustained during her final collegiate season resurfaced. After winding up in Switzerland for her second pro season, the 6-foot-3 Pritchard suffered what her physical therapist calls "a freak injury" during a match in February 2023. After jumping to make a block, Pritchard tried to change directions seconds before planting her foot on the floor. It was a move she'd made countless times before, but this time she landed awkwardly and immediately felt a pop in her knee.
It took seconds for Pritchard to realize something catastrophic had happened.
"I had never felt like that before," she said. "I had moved like that a million times and knew right away it was significant. I knew it was bad."
Because the tiny village where the team was playing had no doctor, Pritchard didn't at first know the scale of the damage. Doctors later told her she had suffered tears in both the knee's meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament. The doctors advised waiting a month before surgery in an attempt to strengthen the knee, so she completed an initial month of rehab before having the ACL surgery. She wound up in a hospital overlooking Lake Geneva, carefully tended to by her two foreign teammates, Kate Ferguson of Canada and Jelena Novakovic from Serbia.
The doctors told her she wouldn't return to volleyball for nine months to a year. All Pritchard could do was gaze at the gorgeous lake and graciously accept her friends' help.
"I think my faith gave me strength and my friends kept me steady," she said.
By April, Pritchard was back in Maryland undergoing a tough rehab and pondering few volleyball options. She started physical therapy in pain and wondering whether an athletic future was in the cards.
"I had no idea what the future held. The doctors said you have to be patient; they said I'd come so far and I should be proud of that," she said. "I knew I'd be back, that much I knew."
Physical therapy from an ACL injury can be broken into phases. Doctors wait for swelling to subside and then begin working on range of motion. Tissue is eventually grafted in place of the torn ligament, and the priority of restoring strength and stability begins in earnest. The painstaking process includes specific work to build everything from the calf to the hip.
After about four months, Pritchard had built enough strength in her knee to begin running. Doctors assess what is called a "torque-to-body" ratio, with the goal of an athlete building enough strength to accept high-intensity workouts. Doctors then begin work that is specific to the movements of a volleyball player.
The toughest part of the recovery, Pritchard said, is not only enduring the monotony of muscle building, but trying to drown out the nagging doubts: even if she does return to volleyball, will she regain her unique talent? To her, rehab was a process best broken into smaller, day-by-day segments. She found that mentally it made no sense to peer too far down the road.
"When you look so far ahead it seems daunting," she said.
Pritchard said there was no one part of the surgery and rehabilitation that leaped out in terms of difficulty. All of it was tough.
"There was no one thing," Pritchard said. "But it was like, 'Will I be the player I was?’ [Rehab] is a traumatic thing and it sticks with you. Volleyball is a dynamic, high-level sport, and to compete after an ACL, it was hard for sure. It's hard to overcome."
Pritchard's physical therapist, T.J. Holdredge of the Maryland-based True Sports Physical Therapy, said Pritchard was an optimal patient. Her intense desire to return to the sport was apparent immediately.
"She is one of the most incredible people I've met in going through this," he said. "She's an incredibly hard worker. She was frustrated this happened, but she was not going to let it derail her career. She came back with a lot of drive.
"Erika found joy in playing and she wasn't ready for that to end. She worked hard to get it back to the professional level. And when [Rise coach Cathy George] asked her to play, she turned it up a notch."
If Pritchard were to offer insight to young athletes who face a path clouded by uncertainty, her advice would be simple: Focus on the now, and then find what Pritchard calls "a flow" that allows an athlete to navigate through the process.
"Focus on the present, keep your attention on the now," she said. "You've got a find a flow and learn to play with joy. Whether it's painting or writing or whatever, you just want to be in the flow. If you think too much of the past or future, that's when you lose it. I do know that's easier said than done."
After declaring the surgery and rehab a success, Pritchard was still left with a significant issue: where and if to play volleyball. In early summer 2023, George was scanning lists of potential PVF players and came across Pritchard's name. As a former Michigan State coach, George had seen Pritchard play at both Maryland and Penn State. While George knew of Pritchard's surgery and the road she'd need take to regain her talent, she believed Pritchard could play professionally. George reached out with an offer.
“I’m so grateful that Coach Cathy had the belief and confidence to give me this special opportunity with PVF before I could even walk or run properly,” said Pritchard. “That gave me extra fuel and motivation in my recovery and return to sport.”
What George has seen of her outside hitter the last two years has only confirmed her high opinion.
After missing the first half of the Rise’s 2024 inaugural season while completing her recovery, Pritchard eventually appeared in 13 matches and helped Grand Rapids reach the PVF championship.
She followed up a strong Rise debut with a powerful start to her second season in West Michigan, earning week 4 PVF Player of the Week honors. Pritchard had a Rise season-high 27 points (21 kills, five blocks, one ace) in a five-set victory over the Orlando Valkyries on Jan. 30, then followed that up with 14 points (10 kills, two blocks, two aces) in a sweep of the San Diego Mojo on Feb. 2. In all, she finished the week with 41 points (31 kills on a .352 hitting percentage, seven blocks, three aces) across two wins, recording 5.13 points per set.
"I remembered her from the Big Ten and remembered her being a versatile and talented player that would put in the work," said George, who coached two players collegiately that rebounded from ACL surgery to become All-Americans. "That part of her wasn't going to go away. I trusted her and the coaches and knew that wasn't going to go away. She was very committed to the process and is only getting better."
After physically tackling surgery and the long rehab, Pritchard had only one hurdle left, one common to athletes who have faced such difficulties. Even when doctors have given the green light to return to the court, it's only human nature to wonder if another injury is only a wrong step away.
Pritchard said those legit concerns have to be discarded. "There are mental hurdles," she said. "But you have to trust the work you've put in and trust your body. There were a lot of things that were hard about [coming back]; I don't want to brush that off. But you validate that and not let it control you."
Pritchard said after traveling through the dark tunnel and slipping into the light on the other side, she finds herself a believer in the words attributed to legendary sports broadcaster Heywood Hale Broun: "Sports don't build character, they reveal it."
Whether it's embracing teammates, working with coaches, or dealing with the pressure of being a professional athlete, Pritchard concurs that sports do reveal the inner strength of an athlete. Pritchard said overcoming adversity can be the ideal teacher, a fact which was underlined in her return to excellence on a volleyball court.
"I remember it was just amazing to be back out there, moving and playing. I didn't really have any expectations and I think that helped me," she said.
"Life can always be so go-go, and when you're forced to rest, you think about things in a new perspective. For me, that was helpful. You realize a lot of things, like how tough it is and that you're not going to get through it all by yourself. It can take a year and it's still a battle, sometimes an internal battle. But there are tools you can use that are ongoing.
“My faith and the unconditional love and support from my family and friends have been a constant and important part of my life,” she said. “I’ve always been encouraged to grow my personal identity, whether or not volleyball was at the forefront. The ability to stay grounded throughout life’s ups and downs is essential.”
If Pritchard learned anything from her ordeal, it's that life has to be lived in the moment.
"I still feel like I'm not where I want to be because I want to be the best person and player I can be," she said. "I'm proud of how far I've come, and you give yourself grace and credit for that. But whether you get there or not, you can't look too far ahead. You just give your all now. You enjoy the moment because you know you'll never have another team or time like this.
"You take the little lessons and learn from them."