Lyndsay Clark felt like herself again.

After two surgeries and subsequent recoveries, Clark showed up for the first day of practice ready to make up for lost time.

“The first practice, when I came back, I was so excited,” said the former Dirigo standout center. “I was me again. It felt really good. The first practice, I really felt ready to play. I think the adrenaline really helped because I was so excited to be back.”

After a slow start as a freshman at the University of Albany, Clark hoped her injury woes were behind her. Her first day of practice gave her the hope she coveted. Then came the news she feared.

“By the third practice, it was excruciating pain,” she said.

So Clark’s sophomore season has resembled her injury-plagued freshman year. She’s played in just four games and is trying to find a balance between being able to play and alleviating the pain in her shin. When her team arrives in Maine to play the Black Bears at the Cumberland County Civic Center today at 2 p.m., Clark isn’t sure whether she’ll see action or not. She’s thrilled about her homecoming, but it is bittersweet knowing that she may not play.

“My coaches said they’d like to see me play in the game,” Clark said. ” It’s so frustrating. It’s so hard. My coach has been great, and she’s helped me through it. My teammates are helping me too. They realize how hard this is for me.”

Clark had surgery to repair compartmental syndrome in her shin prior to her freshman year with the Great Danes. The recovery put her behind the rest of the team. By this time last year, she was just starting to get back to playing regularly off the bench. She finished the year playing in 20 games. Her first collegiate points came against Maine and had a career-high seven rebounds against the Black Bears.

Despite returning and playing last year, her leg still bothered her. She assumed it was the old injury still recovering, but at the end of the season, she realized it was something more.

An even more severe injury to her shin was diagnosed and she had surgery in July. She was told the surgery had a 98 percent rate of success, but what she discovered later was that those figures didn’t include athletes.

“It was really disappointing sitting out last year,” said Clark. “I was really hoping to come back my sophomore year and have a bigger impact on the team. It’s really hard when I’m not able to do what I was planning on doing.”

Clark feels part of her is missing, and she feels as though she’s letting her team down. The experience of sitting out last year makes this disappointment that much harder.

“I actually think it’s worse,” she said. “I thought last year, I could get through this.’ I thought I’d be ready to play this year, and I was trying to be able to get stronger and be ready to go.”

She’s been taking acupuncture. The Albany training staff has been in contact with the University of Rhode Island trainers, where former Morse standout Katie Stailing has dealt with compartmental syndrome issues.

Clark says a future without basketball has crept into her mind. It is the worst thought imaginable to her, and she’s trying to stay positive instead.

Her parents, Bruce and Tania, have provided great support for her when she’s felt down. She’s excited about a return home today but would love nothing better than to play in front of those that have followed and supported her career. Some of the current Black Bears – Bracey Barker, Ashley Underwood and Katie Whittier – are players she competed against in high school.

“It’s like a reunion for me,” she said. “I still check their stats. It’s fun to see players that I played against.”