Photo Courtesy/OHIO UNIVERSITY BRIDGEPORT Grad Caitlyn Kroll drives to the basket during a game earlier this season for Ohio University.

ATHENS — It’s been a long and twisting road for Caitlyn Kroll.

The Bridgeport High School graduate is ecstatic about where it’s led.

Kroll has returned to the place where she feels the most comfortable, the basketball court, as a member of the Ohio University women’s basketball team.

“It’s just awesome to be back,” Kroll said. “I am happy to get back at it after working so hard in the summer and preseason for this chance. It’s just great being able to be back doing what I love.”

Kroll began her collegiate career at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania. She red shirted her freshman season as she recovered from a knee injury sustained late in her senior season with the Bulldogs.

She came back as a red-shirt freshman and helped lead St. Francis to a Northeast Conference title and berth in the NCAA Tournament, which ended in a loss to Connecticut.

During that offseason, Kroll elected to look elsewhere to continue her career, citing a desire to be in a place that fit her better mostly off the court.

Thus, she landed in Athens, but had to sit out because of NCAA transfer rules. She was also on the mend, recovering from an injury she sustained shortly after arriving in Athens.

Healthy, eligible and ready to go, Kroll is now back and expected to play a key role for a Bobcats team that is picked to win the Mid American Conference by many pundits.

“Our team is going to be really good,” Kroll said. “We’re a close group that does a lot together. It’s like if you see one of us, two or three more of us aren’t far behind. We do a lot of things together like have game night or go to a movie.”

Against Syracuse in the season opener, Kroll was the sixth person and played quality minutes.

“I am hoping I can be the sixth man of the year in the (MAC), depending on my performance,” Kroll said. “We don’t play a lot of people, so I am going to get a lot of minutes. I just have to make the most of my opportunity.”

Kroll is off to a solid start in her quest. She’s playing starter’s minutes, which is proven by the fact that she logged 27 minutes, which tied for the second most on the team during a win early last week against Marshall.

“We only play like seven or eight players, so everyone is going to be getting a lot of minutes. I just have to take advantage of my opportunities on the court,” Kroll said.

Thus far, in the early going, Kroll’s biggest output came against American. She scored an efficient 13 points, taking advantage of an impressive 5-of-8 shooting effort from the field. She also had two steals.

Kroll was a polished player in high school, expanded that during her stint at St. Francis and has grown even more since arriving in Athens.

“My shooting has gotten better,” Kroll said immediately when asked about which aspect of her game has improved the most. “When I was a freshman, no one would have considered me a shooter. I was a driver, but (at Ohio), I am considered a shooter. My shooting has improved.”

It’s taken some encouragement from her teammates at times to get Kroll to take the jump shot when she’s open.

“I wasn’t really confident in shooting it and there are times when the coaches and other players are like ‘just shoot it,'” Kroll admitted. “It makes it much easier and I can play and just be myself.”

Kroll attributed much of her growth to the continued drilling that Ohio does each day.

“We do skill work for like an hour and just play,” Kroll said. “Those are things that make you better. We have to be able to do the little things right if we’re going to get to where we want to go. You do all of those little things and it adds up.”

The Bobcats return to action today in Columbus against Ohio State.