Bell jumped on a lay-up attempt—“kind of funny,” she explains—and heard a pop on the rise. She fell in a heap under the basket.

Her teammates carried her to the doctor, who diagnosed the ACL tear right away. Bell’s playing career ended a year early.

The transition from player to spectator took time. But says Bell, “even though I lost the basketball side of the season, I didn’t lose my teammates.”

After a home loss to Brown on Feb. 11, the Crimson exhilarated fans with a dominant run through the Ivies. Harvard outscored its opponents by an average of 20 points over seven games and then tackled favored Dartmouth in a play-in for the league championship on March 8.

Bell watched from the stands.

“It was so exciting,” she says. “Every game was so nervous. It’s definitely more nervous when I’m watching.”

Meanwhile, Harvard’s prized recruit from Westwood, Mass., freshman Lindsey Hallion, tore her ACL early in the season. Bell consoled Hallion served as her mentor—the elder of “the ACL sisters.”

“I wanted to be so sad for her,” Bell says, “but had to pretend like it was not a big deal.”

From the sideline, from the stands—Bell looks back on it all with bittersweet fondness.

“It was the best and most important time of my life,” she says.

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.