Former Bangor High School girls soccer All-American Teagan Atherley, who is a freshman on the University of Maine’s team, is undergoing surgery on her right knee Wednesday to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament and partial tear of her lateral meniscus.
She sustained the injury during a season-opening 2-0 loss to Rhode Island on Mahaney Diamond in Orono last month.
“She was trying to get on the end of a through ball in the box and she collided with the goalie and got nudged from behind which threw her off-balance,” said UMaine head coach Scott Atherley, Teagan’s father. “It wasn’t anything malicious.”
He said the recovery period is seven to nine months.
She will be a medical redshirt and will still have four years of eligibility.
Atherley scored 37 goals last season to set the school record in leading the Rams to the state Class A championship.
She was the Maine Soccer Coaches Association’s Class A schoolgirl Player of the Year and was named to several other all-star teams.
She scored 70 career goals for the Rams, which is also a school record.
Atherley, an attacking midfielder, played 19 minutes against URI and had one shot on goal.
She was in UMaine’s first rotation of substitutes in the midfield, according to her father.
She had scored a couple of goals during preseason exhibition games.
“She showed she could play at this level and be impactful,” Scott Atherley said. “She definitely gave us an element in the midfield. She could find gaps in behind [opposing defenders] when our strikers checked in and she had developed a real good partnership with Emma Nicholson.”
Sophomore Nicholson is the team’s leading scorer with two goals.
“Teagan did a good job reading when it was time to get out and make a run behind and through that gap,” the veteran coach said.
The defending two-time America East champion Black Bears are off to a 1-3-1 start.
