The young ISU soccer team needs leadership this season, and Krista Voss, the team’s co-captain and only senior, will be expected to provide a lot of it.

Unfortunately, a back injury could limit Voss’s role to helping from the sidelines.

The injury, called degenerating disease, has kept midfielder Voss off the field since the final game of the 2000 season.

“What has happened is my disk in my lower spine is dehydrated,” Voss said. “My disk is aging a lot faster than the rest of my body.”

Even though Voss is injured, it doesn’t mean she won’t be a factor in the upcoming season. She will likely see heavy playing time. But if her back gives her problems, she won’t play as much.

“For right now, we’re just trying out things and seeing what I can and can’t handle,” Voss said.

Voss is wearing a back plaster, a sticky heating pad that applies heat to her injured disk, during practices and games, but she said it’s still been a struggle to play with such a debilitating injury.

“It’s hard at times to know that I can do it, but my body won’t let me do it,” Voss said.

In the face of injury, Voss said she knows there are ways to help the team other than on the soccer field.

“I want to contribute on and off the field,” she said.

Voss said if she can’t contribute physically, she wants to help the team develop a good attitude as well as a positive work ethic.

“The joke on the team is that I’m the mommy,” she said.

With eight new freshmen on this year’s team, Voss’s guidance will be important.

Head soccer coach Stephanie Gabbert said Voss has been great at moving the freshmen along.

“Krista is one of the best leaders I’ve ever had on a team,” Gabbert said. “She pushes players … she wouldn’t ask players to do what she wouldn’t do herself.”

Voss hopes to help the young soccer team improve on their 7-10-2 record which they posted last season.

The Cyclones finished ninth in the Big 12 Conference and failed to make the Big 12 Tournament.

This is Voss’s fourth and final season as a member of the ISU soccer team.

She played in all 19 matches last season, where she tallied a goal and an assist.

Voss has amassed five points, two goals and an assist, over her career.