Ryann Chandler didnt think much about the headaches that arrived after she took a ball to the head during a friendly game of pepper. Nor did it give her much pause a few weeks later when a ball smacked her in the face and wrenched her neck during an early-season game for Pepperdine. She played on.But the pain intensified after a September game at Kentucky that fall of 2013. The freshman libero was first diagnosed with a migraine, but later it became apparent that it was a concussion, a frightening word in Chandlers world.Her dad, Chris Chandler, an NFL quarterback for 17 years who had been nicknamed Crystal Chandelier for his numerous injuries, was all too familiar with them, and he explained to her the long-term consequences.I got really depressed, Ryann Chandler said.And scared. Volleyball became secondary to her health. Her headaches made computer use painful and focusing difficult. Chandler and her dipping grades left Pepperdine that December and returned home to San Diego and enrolled at MiraCosta College in Oceanside.I didnt plan to play again, Chandler said.Which makes Fridays game in Minneapolis a million times sweeter.Now a setter at UCLA, Chandler and the Bruins (26-6) play North Carolina (29-3) in Fridays Sweet 16 in Minneapolis at 10:45 p.m. ET on ESPNU. Host Minnesota meets Missouri in the earlier matchup, and the regional final is set for 10 p.m. on Saturday. The goal is the final four in Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 15 and 17.I do not take for granted going to the Sweet 16 and all this team has accomplished, the 21-year-old Chandler said. Im super grateful Im able to contribute to the team success this year and hopefully will take it a bit further and go on to Columbus.Six months of headaches gradually lessened with trips to a chiropractor who realigned her neck, noting her head was tilted and rotated. He said my head looked like an old persons, she said. The blood flow was only coming to one side of my head.Instead of road trips to Honolulu and Malibu, Chandler settled into life as a commuter to MiraCosta College. Living at home and driving to class was not the life Chandler ever envisioned, but the three semesters of community college allowed her to redefine her priorities.The biggest transformation was in the classroom. Chandler wasnt overly ambitious in high school, despising math and science and never bothering with AP classes.Now, she immersed herself in academics in a way she never had before, taking on a heavy load and redirecting the laser focus that defined her on the court. With more free time than ever, she worked two jobs at volleyball clubs.She graduated from MiraCosta in the spring of 2014 with an associate degree and a 3.8 GPA.It was an adjustment, but I definitely think I grew as a person, she said. I thought volleyball was no longer an option, so I found a love for school. I learned how to study and write papers; I even tutored. With two jobs, I learned to have different time-management skills than being an athlete.Until her former coach, Brent Hilliard, approached her about playing again, Chandler hadnt considered it seriously. The San Diego associate head coach told her he needed a setter and asked her to consider a return to volleyball. Chandler shrugged off the idea, but she got back in the gym to see how she felt.No longer a regular in the weight room, she was thinner. But she regained her touch easily, and lifting and protein shakes added back the muscle. She visited USD and Cal, but found what she was looking for in both school and volleyball at UCLA.I wanted to choose a school for the school itself, said Chandler, a sociology major. At Pepperdine, volleyball was taken away from me, and I needed to be happy with whatever place I was at, not just the volleyball. All the schools were top caliber in volleyball. Ultimately, UCLA was the best fit because I knew whether or not I played volleyball, I would be happy there.As a Bruin she reunited with Reily Buechler, a longtime club teammate, and middle blocker Jennie Frager, whom she set for at Torrey Pines High School. Mom Diane Chandler remembers her daughter worrying about not being good enough, but once back in uniform, the mechanics returned. Along with her passion.Time away from the game led to a calmer demeanor that she translates to her teammates in high-pressure situations. The Bruins, four-time NCAA champions, navigated a tumultuous Pac-12 to finish runner-up to Washington. They enter this weekend winners of seven of their past nine, having beaten Murray State and Baylor to advance to Minneapolis.Senior Taylor Formico is the top libero in the conference and, along with Frager and freshman Torrey Van Winden, picked up first-team AVCA Pacific South all-region honors. Buechler is tops on the Bruins in kills and points. Chandler leads in service aces and assists.Coach Michael Sealy especially likes the leader Chandler has become.Shes always had a great head for the game, and shes stronger now, he said. Her range has increased because of the added strength. Pieces have changed around her, but shes had the same consistency since coming in.Chandler has another year of eligibility, but the All-Academic Pac-12 selection will graduate and forgo that given career prospects that interest her in the Bay Area.That leaves ideally two more weekends to savor volleyball the second time around.Im so excited for this weekend, she said, adding that many of her teammates eagerly anticipate the forecast of a snowfall in Minneapolis. Its special to be able to go this far with your team. Its dwindling down, and were all talking about the funny things that have happened this season. It will be special to go out with the class I came in with and hopefully end on a high note. Adidas Nmd Ireland . Booth picked up 65 caps after making her national team debut in 2002 at the age of 17. She most recently played for Sky Blue FC of the National Womens Soccer League. "It just felt like it was my time to move on," she said in a phone interview from her hometown of Burlington, Ont. Adidas Nmd Mens Clearance . - Oakland Raiders running back Rashad Jennings was speaking to a group of local high school students earlier this week when the conversation turned to the importance of being prepared when opportunities in life arise. http://www.cheapnmdsneakersireland.com/adidas-nmd-mens-cheap-ireland.html . Emery skated the length of the ice and fought an unwilling Holtby during the third period of the Flyers 7-0 loss Friday night in Philadelphia. He was given 29 penalty minutes, including a game misconduct. But Emery did not face even a disciplinary hearing with NHL senior vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan because rules 46. Cheap Adidas Nmd Mens Ireland . It was just business as usual for the Thunder at home. Durant scored 32 points and the Thunder beat the Bulls 107-95 on Thursday night for their eighth straight win. Adidas Store Basketball Shoes .com) - Yankee Stadium is the home of the Bronx Bombers, but on Sunday afternoon it will open its gates to host the latest addition of the Hudson River Rivalry. What do you need to know about the weekends big stories? Scott Burnside gives us his take on the biggest and best.Love for the Jackets: Isnt it time we started to give the Columbus Blue Jackets and head coach John Tortorella some well-deserved love? Tortorella took a lot of heat, along with the rest of Team USA, for the teams lifeless performance at the World Cup of Hockey. But after losing their first two games of the regular season, the Blue Jackets have gone 10-2-2, including Sundays 3-2 win over the defending Presidents Trophy-winning Washington Capitals. That win marks four in a row for a team that leads the NHL in power-play efficiency (they scored one with the man advantage Sunday) and is second in goals scored per game. With a sterling 7-2-2 record at home, it means the accursed Columbus Civil War cannon is going off like crazy at Nationwide Arena. Sundays win wrapped up a weekend that also saw them knock off the red-hot New York Rangers on Friday night. The Blue Jackets are for real.Good time to score: In the end, it wasnt so much the goals -- although Connor McDavid was no doubt pleased to see three on the official score sheet for his first-ever NHL hat trick -- but rather the result. Of course, for the Edmonton Oilers captain and most important player, McDavids performance and the Oilers success are pretty much inexorably linked. And so it was that McDavids three goals in Saturdays 5-2 win over the disappointing Dallas Stars did break an unusually long goal-less drought (10 games), but it also helped halt an ugly skid that had seen the Oilers lose five straight and go 2-7-1 after a 7-1-0 start. The win moved the Oilers, at leeast temporarily, back into a tie with the Anaheim Ducks for the top spot in the Pacific Division.dddddddddddd The key now for McDavid, second in the league with 22 points, and the Oilers is to prove this wasnt an aberration but the norm, as they host the Chicago Blackhawks and then visit the Colorado Avalanche and Arizona Coyotes in what should be two winnable road games later this week.Caution for Cunningham:?Finally, warm thoughts and wishes go out to Craig Cunningham, the captain of the Tucson Roadrunners of the American Hockey League, and his family. The 26-year-old collapsed on the ice shortly before a game between the Roadrunners and the Manitoba Moose in Tucson Saturday, and he was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he remains. The Arizona Daily Star reported Cunningham appeared to convulse on the ice and was attended to by medical staff from both teams and firefighters who were on the ice as part of a pregame ceremony. The game was postponed and will be rescheduled. Officials with the Roadrunners parent club, the Arizona Coyotes, describe the situation as both very serious and fluid as of Sunday evening. Cunningham is a native of Trail, British Columbia, and was drafted 70th overall by the Boston Bruins in 2010. Hed been with the Coyotes organization the past couple of seasons and played 29 games with the big club over the past two seasons. Cunningham, who had 13 points in 11 games for the Roadrunners this season, is described as a hard worker and was extremely well-liked in the Coyotes room. ' ' '