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<\/p>\nThe smile came halfway through our conversation.<\/p>\n
Texas Tech Soccer star defender Kylie Bahr was talking about the long road back \u2014 the pain, the confusion, the year she lost on the sideline \u2014 when she suddenly stopped, smiled and laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just getting giddy thinking about it,\u201d she said, shaking her head with a grin as the thought of the team\u2019s upcoming game crossed her mind. \u201cI get to play again in two days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even 13 games into the season she still gets geeked at the simple thought of playing. It was a small moment, but one that tells her story better than words ever could. <\/p>\n
Yet still my words will try, because a year ago that smile didn\u2019t come so easily for Bahr.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why playing this year hasn\u2019t been something she\u2019s taken for granted \u2014 not after an injury so puzzling it took some of Texas Tech\u2019s best medical minds to figure out how to fix it.<\/p>\n
The Injury That Wouldn\u2019t Add Up<\/p>\n
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Bahr was poised to help carry on the success of the historic run she and her teammates made in 2023. A year that saw Texas Tech go undefeated in the regular season, claim its first Big 12 regular season championship and advance to the Sweet 16. As one of the returning veterans, she was expected to anchor a talented group of returners and newcomers.<\/p>\n
Then, during a training session back home in Colorado last June, everything changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was back home in Colorado and I was training with my old club coach and actually Raleigh [Greason, who\u2019s from Colorado too] was the one who played a pass to me,\u201d Bahr recalled. \u201cIt was non-contact. I just stepped in to finish a cross and I felt something tweak. I just knew that it wasn\u2019t something minor.\u201d<\/p>\n
She flew back to Lubbock a few days later and underwent surgery on her knee. It was a simple procedure, in sports terms at least. The kind that usually sidelines a player for a few weeks, not a full year.<\/p>\n
But even for one of the most fearless athletes to ever step foot on Tech\u2019s campus, there was nothing simple about what came next. The pain never really went away. What should have been a routine recovery became a confusing, stop-and-start ordeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pain just never left,\u201d Bahr explained. \u201cIt was such a weird feeling. My knee was swollen and hurting, but nothing was structurally wrong. That was the frustrating part, not having answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually doctors discovered she had a unique abnormality in the shape of her meniscus. Nothing that hinders her ability longterm or compromises her knee structurally. A small piece of the puzzle was solved but it still didn\u2019t solve the greater mystery as the knee wasn\u2019t reacting the way one typically would to rehab, because it was in fact atypical.<\/p>\n
Her head coach Tom Stone remembers that same sense of befuddlement. \u201cNo one was really worried because she didn\u2019t have a serious injury, but for whatever reason, we couldn\u2019t get past a certain point. That\u2019s what made it so confusing and frustrating for Kylie especially.\u201d<\/p>\n
So as the season got underway without her\u2026.the search for answers continued.<\/p>\n
Texas Tech Meeting of Minds That Changed Everything<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
When the pain wouldn\u2019t fade and no scan could explain it, Bahr\u2019s recovery turned into a university-wide effort to get her back on track.<\/p>\n
Texas Tech\u2019s athletic trainers, sports performance staff, doctors and specialists from multiple sports departments began collaborating to figure out what was going on. They reexamined everything. Her movement patterns, her strength work, even the way she cut and planted on her repaired knee.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really nice that they were able to bring everybody together and do it for me,\u201d Bahr said. \u201cThey were like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ll have you be a part of it \u2014 tell us how you feel, tell us what\u2019s going on \u2014 but you don\u2019t have to be in the middle of trying to figure everything out.\u2019 I was still involved, just being honest about how I was feeling. That\u2019s how it is with any rehab, but it meant a lot that they were able to get so many resources for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That communication and transparency helped her stay grounded as the process stretched on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like every week we were trying something new,\u201d she recalled. \u201cDifferent exercises, different recovery plans \u2013 just hoping something would finally click. It was hard because I wanted to be back so bad but I also didn\u2019t want to rush it and make it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
While she would end up missing the 2024 fall and 2025 spring season both. Her patience, and the collective effort behind her, eventually paid off.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, especially with really smart people like we\u2019ve got over at football and with our training staff, you just break everything down and start over,\u201d Stone explained. \u201cThey changed her weightlifting, changed her fitness, changed her cutting, changed her rehab processes. Literally threw out the playbook and created something just for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
After much trial and error, the sports medicine staff landed on a reinvented rehab that worked for her uniquely shaped meniscus that they hypothesized was preventing the traditional rehab plan from working. For the first time in months, Bahr began to feel like herself again. The confusion gave way to progress and with it, relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just such a relief to finally know what was wrong,\u201d she expressed. \u201cOnce we figured it out, it was like, okay\u2026 now I can actually move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kylie Bahr\u2019s Return to Form On & Off the Pitch<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC00630-min-1024x683.jpg\")
Kylie Bahr | Shelby Hilliard, Red Raider Sports<\/p>\n
Throughout all of this Bahr was still around the team. She was still doing her best to lead, still cheering, still a part of the team in every way she could be. But to her head coach and those around her something was clearly missing. <\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, and I think she knows this too, she was almost unrecognizable,\u201d Stone recalled. \u201cShe was not the same person. Kylie is outgoing \u2014 she fills the room. When Kylie walks in, you just know some super confident young woman has entered the premises. And when that was taken from her, her ability to exhibit that competitiveness, it definitely changed her personality. It was almost like she was softened, and she didn\u2019t like it, because there was no outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without soccer she had nowhere to channel what makes her, her. Then came the turning point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe minute the pain started to go away and she got back into practice, I remember one day seeing her, and I was like, \u2018Oh, there she is. There\u2019s Kylie,\u2019\u201d Stone said recalling their conversation. \u201cGood to see you. Glad to have you back on the team. And she was like, \u2018What does that mean?\u2019 And I said, \u2018Man, you were not the same person when you couldn\u2019t compete.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe she didn\u2019t realize it in that moment but she knows it now. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been competitive, so to suddenly not have that outlet\u2026 it was hard,\u201d Bahr said honestly. \u201cThe overall word that I can describe is gratitude. You really take things for granted until it\u2019s taken away from you. When you don\u2019t have it for a while, you just forget how much you really love it. Now I\u2019m just thankful every day I get to play \u2014 and it\u2019s so exciting to think about how far we can go this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then that giddy smile returned \u2014 the same one that showed up mid-interview when she started thinking about their upcoming game. The same glint in her eye that her coach saw when she finally got to be herself again.<\/p>\n
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Macy Blackburn and Kylie Bahr celebrate goal | Shelby Hilliard, Red Raider Sports<\/p>\n
But let it be clear, her opponents on the field are faced with anything but a smile. Nothing about playing against Kylie Bahr is joyful actually. Her presence is felt in every tackle, every run, every moment she dictates the intensity of a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s back with a vengeance,\u201d Stone said. \u201cShe plays with such a fearless nature that it\u2019s contagious. Other players are like \u2018dang right, if she\u2019s going, I\u2019m going!\u2019 She just exudes such confidence that other people feed off of it. We\u2019ve had other people like that through the years, but I don\u2019t know if we\u2019ve had anybody any more so than Kylie.\u201d<\/p>\n
That confidence is fully warranted too as she\u2019s playing at an all-conference level for a Texas Tech team fighting for its second Big 12 regular-season title in three years, the first coming when Bahr last played in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team is so special, on and off the field,\u201d Bahr answered when asked what sticks out about this year\u2019s team. \u201cThe community we have is huge and you can just see it reflected on the field. If I\u2019m down someone\u2019s picking me up, and that\u2019s just the way our culture is. Soccer aside, this group really cares for one another. But on the field, we\u2019ve been blessed with so many amazing athletes and talents. The way we\u2019re able to work together and use our gifts in certain parts of the field is honestly unlike anything I\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s something really special and it\u2019s going to take us far this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, all the rehab and recovery led Bahr back to herself \u2014 and to a team just as determined as she is. It feels less like a comeback and more like a continuation, the kind of story that reminds you \u2018anything can happen\u2019. <\/p>\n
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