For all the accolades Haley Bodway has racked up in her prep volleyball career, she hit a milestone last week that most toddlers master with ease.

"I ran yesterday," she beamed. "My gosh, this has been so hard."

Bodway, one of Bloomington Jefferson's go-to players on the court since she was in eighth grade and the owner of more than 1,500 kills, has spent a good chunk of her senior season on the bench.

Instead of this being the year coach Michelle Grice could sit back and watch matches unfold -- the product of more than four years of sometimes agonizing planning -- she was back to square one.

"We got back to fighting together from the ground up," Grice said. "It was gritty and it was tough. But that's who we are as a team."

Bodway, a Western Kentucky recruit, rolled an ankle in the Jaguars' fifth match of the season. She was back three and a half weeks later, tossing aside the four-to-six-week recovery time medical personnel told her to expect, only to roll it again in practice.

Out another week, Bodway was back to help Jefferson sweep defending Class 3A champion Lakeville North on Oct. 6. Five nights later, she suffered a torn right hamstring.

"It's been a huge roller coaster," Bodway said. "Get over one wall and then hit another one."

Bodway, who receives physical therapy every day, hopes to be cleared to play by Friday's Class 3A, Section 6 tournament opener against the winner of Wednesday's opening-round match between Eastview and Park of Cottage Grove.

She participated in workouts over MEA break but wore a wrap around her hamstring.

Whether it was on purpose or not, the wrap was blue. Not quite Jefferson's uniform shade of blue, but close.

It's a symbolic nod to the type of team leader she's been forced into this season, showing her support in other ways.

"I'd much rather be on the court," she said. "It's hard to look forward to a game when you know you're injured and you can't contribute. [But] you have to find a way to contribute somewhere else either verbally or just to be encouraging."

In the past, that role has fallen to classmate Kelley Wollak. A solid volleyball player in her own right who is headed to Nebraska-Omaha next fall, Wollak had been known for her upbeat attitude and community service project coordination.

This year?

"I'm a new person on the court," she said. "I've taken it upon myself to do more things on the court because Haley had done such a great job for so long."

Of Wollak's 797 kills since eighth grade, 271 have come this season.

Wollak recently had a dream. In it, she said, she continuously struggled to get the ball over the net before succeeding just prior to waking up.

Perhaps it's an omen for a Jefferson program that hasn't advanced to state since 1999, won only four matches in 2007 and this year has a roster full of seniors eager for one last shot.

"This is what we live for," Wollak said.