The women’s basketball team is in the middle of its best season ever. It’s easy to forget that the season started with great adversity. So easy, in fact, that I almost forgot.

The one person who has not forgotten is Daiva Gerbec. The junior forward’s season ended before it began when she tore her Achilles tendon during a preseason practice.

“It was kind of surreal,” junior forward Kari Daugherty said. “She tore her Achilles when we were doing sprints. It was the strangest thing. We were all running and we turned around and Daiva was on the floor. We had no idea what in the world had happened.”

The Eagles, in preparation for what was expected to be one of their best seasons ever, had just lost their best player from the year before. Gerbec was coming off of one of the best seasons in Ashland history.

She set school records for total rebounds (311) and rebounds per game (10.7) and averaged 15.9 points per game. She pulled down a school record 21 rebounds against Central State. She was named first team All-GLIAC and first team All-Midwest Region and was an honorable mention as an All-American as well as being named to the GLIAC’s All-Defensive squad.

All that, and she’s had to spend every game this season on the bench.

“I’ve never felt more disappointed in my life,” Gerbec said. “I was so ready for the season and I was so ready to just kick butt. I was just so ready for it and I felt invincible.”

Talking to Gerbec, it’s almost impossible to feel her pain. She hides it so well. So well, in fact, that as more and more people start to fill Kates Gymnasium with every game the Eagles win, I wonder how many of the new fans even know who Gerbec is. Do they know that this team, which has now won 22 straight games, is actually missing one of its key components?

There are so many great players on the team that it is hard to imagine there could be anyone missing. It’s not like she got hurt during the middle of the season, leaving a tangible hole that was there one game and not the next. It’s not like she makes a scene out of having to sit on the bench. She has a smile on her face from start to finish of every game.

It might be easy now, I suppose, to wear that smile since she has had a front row seat for a legendary season. But it can’t have been easy at the start of the season

As I began reporting for this week’s story on the team’s incredible win streak and season, I realized that I don’t have a favorite player. It seems like any player in the rotation could have a career game and lead the team to victory any given night. Then, as I began listening to Gerbec describe her season to me, it dawned on me.

My favorite player on this team hasn’t scored a point all season. She hasn’t grabbed a rebound or blocked a shot. She hasn’t even put on her uniform, at least not for a game (I wonder if she ever puts it on in her dorm, just to imagine what could have been or look forward to what will be when she comes back next season). All Gerbec has done is lead the team in optimism, a feat that seemed nearly impossible at the start of the season. A feat that, in my opinion, is far more impressive than any of the videogame-like numbers she put up last year.

She’s leading the team in quotes like this one:

“Everybody’s always saying God has a plan for me and I can definitely see that with this whole injury. It was a big disappointment but I have grown so much with it.”

And this one:

“Rehab is tedious and it’s not always really rewarding but I just keep envisioning myself going out there and kicking butt and just being with the team and playing again.”

When preseason began it seemed like nothing could stop Gerbec. In reality, all it took was a bad step. Now, with the NCAA tournament just a few short weeks away, it seems like nothing can stop this team. In reality, all it takes is one bad game. Gerbec should be a reminder of that. All her teammates see when they look at her, however, is a big smile that says the opposite. That might just make all the difference.