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Fearless Leader Cramer's battles spur Boilermakers O ne game, the one she missed last season, illustrates the importance of Carly Cramer to the Boilermakers. Sitting out due to a concussion, Purdue lost soundly, being whipped in every statistical category; not only that, but the defeat came at the hands of Iowa, which hadn't yet won a Big Ten match. "The worst team in the league beat us because she wasn't here," Coach Dave Shondell said. "… I thought our guys would respond favorably and win it for Carly. We got swept by a hot team that night, but it never would have happened if we had Cramer." Serve up all the sports clichés about the fifth-year senior libero: Cramer's the glue that holds the Boilermakers together, the sparkplug; she plays with reckless abandon. "Carly gives 110 percent," teammate Annie Drews says. It's that intensity that has helped Cramer garner the respect of her teammates. But her win-at-all-costs attitude, along with perhaps a bit of clumsiness, has had Cramer in and out of the lineup over the years. The Martinsville, Ind., native has endured a stress fracture in her left leg, labrum reconstruction surgery, an MCL strain, a sprained wrist, concussions and a cut under an eye. "And there's the little things," she said. "You fall really hard and huge bruises, Charlie Horses, hamstring pulls." It all came to a head in 2010, when the stress fracture coincided with the labrum tear, leaving her no choice but to get shoulder surgery to end her season. But she was back, and largely healthy again in 2012, starting 33 games for Purdue at libero. Her 4.23 digs per set led the Boilers and were good for fourth in the Big Ten. The 5-foot-6 Cramer has tried to be smart about the injuries, whether that's backing off a bit on the court, or asking for help off of it. "Being healthy for me is one of my goals all the time," she said. "The trainers and coaches help me, and my teammates help me if they see something I 95 IllustrateD volume 24, issue 1 Tom Campbell Senior Carly Cramer's work ethic and attitude have earned her the respect of her teammates. shouldn't be doing, like if I'm standing on a spinning chair in the locker room. It's 'Carly, get down, we'll reach it for you.' "But right now, I feel very close to 100 percent." That's good news for the Boilermakers, whose veteran group has high expectations in 2013, and Cramer is a big reason why. "She's a great natural leader," Shondell said. "I think what she's doing now is kind of studying each player and figuring out how she can help them in her own way. In the past, it was a very bold kind of a leadership, and one of the things I've talked to her about is that that is good and works with some people, but you've got to find a way to connect to all of your teammates. "But she does have a unique ability that most females athletes don't have — she doesn't care what anybody thinks — and that's unusual in women's athletics. Because at the end of the day, they all want to hold hands and walk out the door. f