Sitting against the fence on the Stuart Field turf, Mike Tucker – for reasons obvious and not – liked what he saw as he watched his University of Dayton women’s soccer team practice for Friday’s Atlantic 10 Conference opener at Massachusetts.

“I’m sitting here now just kind of enjoying the stuff we’re doing,” Tucker said as the ball went to Flyers star Colleen Williams, who, without hesitation, passed to a teammate in better position for a shot.

“When your star players have the attitude that they’re just as happy to get an assist as a goal, it carries over to everybody else.”

That team attitude was never more evident than just before practice when Tucker and his players made the biggest assist they’ll make all season.

With a university film crew on hand, the entire team chorused a get-well wish – and senior players also offered individual messages – to one of the their biggest fans and someone who has become especially dear to Tucker.

Krystal Byrne, a 27-year-old recent UD grad, is someone who for years has shown she dearly loves the school and, because of it, has ended up getting that love in return.

A top student, a star athlete, someone with an effervescent personality, she came to UD from Ottoville, her small hometown in northwest Ohio, in August 2004. After a semester, she had a 3.8 grade-point average, had joined the dance team and hoped to walk onto Tucker’s soccer team.

But during the spring she was diagnosed with biphenotypic acute leukemia (BAL) and that began a staggering eight-year odyssey that included heart failure, a kidney transplant, a stem cell transplant, chemotherapy, full-body radiation, other surgeries, and even last rites. She was forced to drop out of school five times and, she estimates, another 15 times her medical condition forced her to leave UD for home although she was able to do her work from afar and stay enrolled.

And yet she never gave up and each time she returned to her beloved school, she reached for more. She became a regular on the Dean’s List and joined the Red Scare, sometimes showing up at basketball games with her face painted red and blue.

Because of her embrace of soccer – she had played on the boys varsity at Ottoville –and her upbeat attitude, Tucker took a liking to her. He had her address his team and gave her an open invitation to sit on the bench during games.

Before Krystal graduated in May – cum laude with a degree in visual communication – Tucker took her to lunch and gave her the same team pin he gives his graduating seniors.

But this wasn’t one of those happy-ever-after stories.

“We e-mail back and forth a little bit and I sent her a message about three weeks ago, but it took her almost 10 days to get back to me,” Tucker said. “And when she did it was a bit unusual. She’s usually really upbeat, but this time she was pretty down. And when I asked, she gave me the story of what she’s been going through.”

A few weeks after graduation she underwent a painful laser surgery to deal with a persistent viral infection. No sooner had she begun to heal than the infection returned, and now she faces another operation.

Krystal’s mom, Jayne, said last week her daughter found out she has such small amounts of immunoglobulin in her system that she is going to begin intravenous IVIG treatments. She may be forced to take them the rest of her life.

Then, Jayne said, another doctor discovered she has no anti bodies in her body, not even any of the vaccines she got recently or as a kid.

Wednesday, she was to spend the day with doctors in Lima. Today, she’ll be undergoing tests at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus.

“She was sick pretty much all summer,” Jayne said. “Her doctor said he’d like to see her walk two miles a day, but right now she struggles to go one block. Through it all she still seems to be upbeat, but with this latest news it’s been tough.”

And so when Jayne found out UD athletes were filming a video for her daughter, she was moved to tears: “This couldn’t come at a better time. She just loves that campus.

“But after she spent eight years there I was thinking, ‘Gosh, I bet folks there are saying, ‘We’re so glad she’s finally out of here. She required all the extra work, that extra concern.’ But now here they are still thinking of her. I can’t tell you what that means.”

Jayne’s voice wavered, then she finally added:

“When I’m feeling really bad, I think of all the parents I met along the way here – all the husbands – those who lost their loved ones in this fight. I can’t imagine how they live, so I feel blessed. We just enjoy every single day, every single moment. Tonight we’ll sit and snuggle and just watch movies. And through it all, you hope there’s a chance for a good life out there somewhere.”

And until that day comes, you hold onto what good comes your way.

Tucker sensed that and that’s why – said Krystal Warren of the UD sports information department – he was “adamant” about having the DVD made. And in the process other UD athletes and coaches – including basketball’s Devin Oliver and Josh Benson and UD women’s hoops coach Jim Jabir – have added their voices to the DVD, which will be delivered to Krystal in a few days.

“Krystal has shown she definitely has that competitive spirit, which is what we love with our own players,” Tucker said. “Thank goodness she has that. It’s how she’s fought through all she’s had to. And the way she’s done it – with such spirit – you love someone like that. She’s just terrific.

“Over the years, no matter what she was dealing with, she made it out to our games. She always supported us. So I thought it’s the least we could do to support her.

“Our team’s message to her is: ‘We’re playing for you right now — and we’re praying for you, as well.’”

Like he said, his players know how to give an assist.