Fickle hand of fate

The tears started before she muttered a word to explain the pain.

Her pinkie, the smallest finger on her skilled hands, was in a cast. It's broken in two places. The pain still shoots through her hand.

But that's not the reason for the tears.

On one harmless play, Claudia Brauss' season ended.

"Working for four years to play your hardest your senior year and go as far as you can and then getting hurt right before the playoffs is really tough," Brauss said.

Brauss, the senior goalkeeper for the Notre Dame girls soccer team, broke the pinkie on her right hand when a Central player kicked her hand on a corner kick during a game Monday.

"I was going out for the ball and I had my hands extended and the girl kicked up and she kicked my finger," Brauss said.

The play happened during the first half and Brauss tried to gut out the remainder of the half, but the pain kept building. She finally went to the hospital later that evening.

"That's when they told me my season was over," Brauss said, the tears welling up again.

Brauss replays the corner kick in her mind daily, but she keeps coming to the same conclusion.

"I went out for the ball and she kicked it out of my hands," she said. "There's really nothing I could have done."

She's received support from her teammates as she deals with the end of her season. It hasn't been easy, but their words of encouragement have helped lessen the blow.

"They'll see me crying every once in a while and come up and give me a hug and just say, 'You brought us this far,'" Brauss said. "They have been really supportive because they know it means a lot to me."

Thursday's regular-season finale was the Bulldogs' first game without Brauss in goal. Instead, junior Shelley Frank donned the goalie jersey. She earned a shutout even though she never faced a shot on goal. It was an unusual experience for the Bulldogs defenders, who were used to Brauss barking instructions.

"It's a lot of difference for me because I pretty much know when Claudia is going to come out and I know where she's going to be when the ball comes back," Notre Dame defender Hailey Brown said. "I have to get used to Shelley and how she plays."

Frank isn't new to the position. She gained valuable experience in goal last year, a move coach Jeff Worley is thankful he made last season.

"She's a very good goalkeeper," Worley said. "As much confidence as everybody had in Claudia, they have that kind of confidence in Shelley. They know she spent a lot of time back there."

Frank's teammates are rallying around her too as she tries to adjust to life as a goalie. She spent the season as a denfender and now finds herself in goal. She was plenty vocal during Thursday's game as she pointed out potential scoring threats to her teammates.

"I'm used to talking a lot so it's no problem talking," Frank said. "It's just making sure everyone's marked up."

Frank considered herself lucky to have one game and a few practices to get her "goalie hands" back. But she admits she'll be nervous in the team's first district game.

"I don't want to let my team down," she said. "I know Claudia really wants to be back there. I have confidence in my team, my defense and offense, that they'll keep the ball in that end."

Standout midfielder Meridith Medlin said there's no added pressure on the offense to score more goals because the team knows Frank will keep the ball out of the Bulldogs' goal.

"I know we still have confidence in Shelley because she has played goalie for the other three years and she's a hard worker," Medlin said.

Brauss hasn't offered Frank any advice about the position. She's decided to let Frank find her own footing, but will offer as much encouragement as possible.

"She has a good eye, what she needs to look for," Brauss said. "She knows what to do and how to do her job."

Brauss plans to attend Murray State University in the fall, but her competitive soccer career is likely over. She said she'll try to play intramural soccer in college.

While she's played in her last high school game, she still considers herself a vital part of the Bulldogs' championship run. The tears returned as she tried to describe her new role with the team.

"It's just a hard time because I worked for four years to play my senior year district games," she said. "Now I just get to sit the bench and cheer on the team."