Just days after womenâÄôs head basketball coach Pam Borton announced her excitement for the upcoming season and an influx of young talent, her mood was tempered.

Borton announced in a release Monday that freshman Kayla Hirt tore her anterior cruciate ligament in practice last week and will miss the entire season.

Borton raved Thursday at the teamâÄôs media day about how well her squad had done through nine practices. She said she was particularly excited about her latest recruiting class.

Although it was not clear which leg the tear was in, Hirt missed her senior year at Bemidji High School after she had surgery in September to fix a partial tear in her opposite ACL, according to the release.

 âÄúKaylaâÄôs return to the court was exciting for her and our program. This injury was very disappointing not only for Kayla, but for the entire Gopher program, because she had worked so hard to come back. She was at 100 percent and practicing extremely well,âÄù Borton said in the release.

The 6-foot, 2-inch guard/forward was one member of the touted Minnesota recruiting class that also includes Lakeville NorthâÄôs Rachel Banham.