When injury took down its best player early last season, the Smoky Hill field hockey team didn't exactly bubble over with excitement.

"We were all depending on Kristi (Irgens)," senior Emily Voss recalled. "Without her, we thought we were going to lose every single game."

Instead of falling apart, the Buffaloes found out something new about themselves while learning to find each other on the field. And Voss found herself right in the middle of the action.

The injury to Irgens, who tore her anterior cruciate ligament but recovered and will play for the UC Davis lacrosse team, forced Smoky Hill to change its game. Most of the Buffaloes had to switch positions, and Voss moved to center midfield, where the team's crisp, pass-control offense moved through her.

"After Kristi's injury two weeks in, Emily stepped up into a leadership role, pulling everyone together," Smoky Hill coach Jenny Perizzolo said. "She developed a really strong sense of the field and the different positions."

Voss said her main roles were to distribute the ball and get her teammates on the same page.

"I'm not the key player to shoot or pass. I move the ball around," Voss said. "When you're on the field, you can't hear the coach, so I took on the role of telling people where they needed to be. If they're not there, I don't have anyone to pass to."

With Voss controlling the middle and Natasja Trujillo and the fast, dynamic scorer Kellen Morrissey pushing the offense, Smoky Hill battled into the semifinal round of the state playoffs, losing 1-0 to Colorado Academy.

The lessons from last season, when the Buffaloes realized they could win without their best player, will be applied this season.

"We kind of freaked out when Kristi got hurt," Morrissey said. "But we rose to the occasion, and I think it made us better as a team. We were all really scared when it happened. But we were forced to change our game plan, and I think we changed for the better."

The new-look offense quickly mastered the art of controlled possession, working the ball around the field from stick to stick with precision passing. As that lingering one-point loss in the semifinals can attest, though, the Buffaloes have to pull the trigger more often and more successfully this season.

"Finishing was a weakness for us," said Perizzolo, who plans to retire after this season. "The rest of the game was under control, but we couldn't get the ball in the back of the net. That's the emphasis this year."

With the offense under control and looking for more potency, a young defense hasn't dampened the Buffaloes' hopes as the season gets started.

"We have a chance at taking state this year," Trujillo said. "Since we already learned how to play after Kristi got hurt, we already made that tough transition so we know how to play without her."