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Summit’s Von Normann a force on shaky knee

Jason Starr

DENVER – About midweek, Stephanie Von Normann stopped listening to her knee.

It hurt and still does going into the final match of the Summit High School volleyball season today at the Denver Coliseum. But the junior middle hitter wasn’t about to miss the Class 4A State Tournament because of a hyperextension.

“I told myself on Wednesday that I was going to play, that I would just suck it up,” she said after Friday’s losses to Lewis-Palmer and Steamboat.



Von Normann sustained the injury Monday during the Tigers’ first pre-state practice. She spent the week in the chamber of SHS athletic trainer Drew Chambers, unable to practice with the team.

“The fact that she didn’t practice all week might have hurt us a little bit, because we were trying to polish up our offense,” said Summit coach Tim Andrulaitis. “But other than that, she was 100 percent.”



Von Normann seemed to move well during Friday’s matches, despite a sizeable knee brace. She didn’t get going until the second game against Lewis-Palmer, much by design.

“In the first game, Tim was trying to use the outside so when we did set middle, it would be open,” Von Normann explained.

Summit setters did use Von Normann and fellow middle hitter Erica Nourse in the second game against Lewis-Palmer, and throughout the three-game loss to Steamboat.

Setter Emily Baker’s timing with Von Normann did seem a bit off all day, perhaps showing the effects of missed practice time, but Von Normann was her usual forceful self as a blocker.

“This (brace) weighs down my leg a lot, but I feel the same mentally,” she said.


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