T

aryn Ohlmiller remembers all too well what it’s like to stand on the sideline and watch a season end, completely out of her control.

And that’s why her story isn’t finished just yet. She said she’ll be back in 2021.

After lighting the lacrosse world on fire as a freshman, Ohlmiller provided an encore as a sophomore until her season was cut short. She dodged a Penn defender and crumbled to the turf in the second round of the NCAA tournament that year, and the torn ACL she suffered forced her to miss the following game — an NCAA quarterfinal loss to Boston College.

The ACL injury flared up and caused her to miss a chunk of the next season, too.

“I’m definitely a very emotional person, so I think that being put through all these obstacles — hurting my knee, hurting it a second time, losing that BC game — I actually think that’s made me want to come back even more,” Ohlmiller said.

Ohlmiller was an invaluable offensive weapon on that 2018 team, and Joe Spallina firmly believes that his Stony Brook team would have defeated Boston College had she been there.

The Stony Brook teams of the last five seasons have been on the precipice of several final four appearances, starting with the core of Kylie Ohlmiller, Courtney Murphy and others. Taryn Ohlmiller and Ally Kennedy are the continuation of the recent trend, and that’s partly why a return is in the cards in 2021.

“We had so many pieces of the puzzle this year, and I really think that we were going far,” Ohlmiller said. “And talking to my teammates about it, I just can’t imagine not being on the field with my team.”

Kennedy wasted little time announcing her plans to return, taking to social media shortly after the NCAA deemed it “appropriate” to provide eligibility relief to spring student-athletes. The NCAA Division I Council voted on Monday to officially grant a blanket waiver to spring student-athletes.

Ohlmiller needed to do some soul searching first.

She said was accepted into a graduate school on Long Island and had a potential coaching job ready for her. But the allure of playing lacrosse with her Seawolves family for a final time was too strong a pull to ignore.

Although he made it clear from the onset that he wanted his seniors to return, Spallina said he didn’t push. He explained how he thinks coaches should take on more of a parenting role at this time.

“I met right away with our seniors,” he said. “It can’t be my decision, and this is what I’ve told them. I want every single one of them back because we’ve been building toward something for four years, but it has to be something that comes from them.”

He added that now’s the time to prove what you preach.

“You have to kind of live in the moment and be where your feet are,” Spallina said. “I just think that the timing of this — not that the timing would ever be good — but our team was playing well, and we’re a very, very young team. You’re building up toward something. Obviously, that gets taken away and you try to keep perspective. You try to keep them engaged.

“You try to preach family. You can’t just say that and then not care about their day-to-day.”

Murphy, the NCAA’s single-season goals leader, provided something of a blueprint for Ohlmiller’s return. Sure, the circumstances were far different, but Ohlmiller admired the way her former teammate recovered from a torn ACL her senior season to return as a graduate student.

The decision was similarly difficult for Murphy, who had a job as a stock trader on Wall Street lined up for after graduation. But while she stood on the sideline and watched Stony Brook lose to Florida, she knew she had to come back.

She wanted to write her own final chapter.

“I was able to watch Murph do that firsthand and watch her write her own ending, and now I think that’s something a lot of us get to do,” Ohlmiller said.

That drive to decide how your story ends has led many players, like Ohlmiller, back for more.

“I think all players need closure,” Spallina said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. How do you want it to be? Are you content with the way it ended? Or do you need the finality?

“The part that can’t be accounted for is the competitive fire and the bonds they have with their friends and teammates.”