Dreams can vanish as quickly as they form. Redshirt senior Carolyn Noble knows this better than most.
Noble has been a soccer player since she was seven years old, which undoubtedly became her biggest passion. Noble always loved the sport, but it was not until the game was stripped away from her that she fully realized how much the game meant to her.
Following her junior season at Nicholls State, Noble began intense preparation for her final season as a Colonel. But on June 21, 2011, Noble experienced the “worst day” of her life, a day she likes to call “D-Day.”
Noble was playing with a club team back home in Canada when she lunged for a ball and her knee  collapsed underneath her. She tore her ACL and had two tears in her meniscus.
“I worked really hard that summer because obviously I knew it was my senior year,” Noble said. “I was playing summer soccer and when it happened, I just remember laying on the ground screaming. All that was going through my head was ‘no God, this can’t happen to me.'”
Noble learned that she would have to undergo surgery, and she called head coach Dylan Harrison crying and pleading for him to allow her to play in 2012. Noble was academically eligible to graduate in May 2012, but after earning a medical redshirt, she decided to postpone graduation and play her senior year with Nicholls.
“There are things I want to accomplish as a member of the team, like go to the conference tournament for one; that’s always been a goal of this team ever since I’ve been here. I’d love to be able to do that,” Noble said.
But the journey back to the team was not easy. Noble had surgery on Sept. 9, 2011 in Canada because her insurance wouldn’t cover it in the United States. After she went under the knife, it took Noble five weeks until she was able to walk, which in turn caused her to wait five weeks before boarding a plane back to Louisiana. Noble began her battle back onto the field in those five weeks, with most of it being mental. 
“I remember when I couldn’t walk for a month and I was just thinking, ‘I’ll never play again. There’s no way. I can’t even walk,'” Noble said.
Once Noble got back in Thibodaux, she “lived in the training room.” For eight straight months, Noble endured two or three hours of rehabilitation every morning before going to class and soccer practice.
Because Noble was constantly strengthening her leg with physical therapy throughout the offseason, she was ready by the time the 2012 season began, and she has played in every game the Colonels have had this season. Though, she admits she still is not fully recovered.
Noble said she sees glimpses of her old self here and there, and right now, she is playing at around 85 percent. But that does not depreciate nor diminish Noble’s attitude or confidence. In fact, Noble said that she has shed tears of joy before a game thinking about the journey it took her to get back onto the field. Taking every day as a blessing and always being thankful for the opportunity given to her, Noble plans on making the most out of her senior season.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve busted out in tears because I’m so thankful that I have this opportunity to be back,” Noble said.
If Noble’s knee remains able and allows her to record two assists this season, she will hold the most assists in school history. This, along with returning to the field and reaching the conference tournament, are all goals set by Noble. Considering she has already won a psychological battle of overcoming an ACL injury and played in every game so far this season, Noble is mentally and physically prepared to become the all-time assists leader for Nicholls.