KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- It was a phone call no coach ever wants to receive while on vacation.

''I was in Mexico last winter and I told the staff, 'don't call me unless it's something worth calling me for,'' Western Michigan University women's soccer head coach said. ''When I got out of the pool and saw on my phone that I had three missed calls, I knew something was wrong.''

Very wrong.

The Mid-American Conference defender of the year, senior Mira Pierre-Webster, had suffered a knee injury and would be out for the 2024 season.

Now, the redshirt senior is back and, once again, leading a defense which gave up just two goals to both No. 2-nationally ranked Notre Dame and No. 7-ranked Iowa. In fact, Pierre-Webster has been named the MAC defensive player of the week two weeks ago. Oddly enough, in 2023, she was never named player of the week but was the MAC's defender of the year.

The Broncos, who won the regular season MAC title the past two seasons, open up defense of that crown on Thursday when they travel to Miami of Ohio.

There was no holding  back Pierre-Webster when she was rehabbing the injury last year, and there is no holding her back now that she's back on the pitch.

''I knew that I never wanted to have a hesitation this season because if I did, I could tear it again,'' she said. ''I want to go 110 percent on every tackle…don't hold back.''

The don't-hold-back attitude is what Western Michigan is bringing into the MAC schedule this year, too. After going 8-0-3 last season, it may be hard to duplicate.

Well, maybe.

''We go into every game saying 'No goal patrol,' '' Pierre-Webster said. ''That means our mentality is absolutely no goals, but sometimes we succumb to a goal, even if we win.''

With his star defender out of the lineup last season, Robinson moved midfielder Heidi Thomasma into the center-back position and the defense still stood strong, allowing just seven goals in the MAC games, four of them in a 5-4 win over Ball State, though.

''The nice thing is we have so much experience in that back line with Mira, Heidi, (senior) Ava Beckett and (graduate student) Avery Peters who are all four or five-year players,'' Robinson said. ''I have to believe that's nice to have around Reagan (freshmen goaltender Reagan Sulaver).

''You wouldn't believe the amount of coaches with recruits who pull me aside after a game and are so complimentary in how the players defend, in how they buy into it. That is the secret to our team succeeding, it's in our DNA. These players are so prideful in it, maybe even more than scoring a goal sometimes as keeping a game a shutout.''

Last season, it wasn't easy for both Pierre-Webster and Robinson to have the league's top defender on the sidelines. She would be running on the sidelines during a game, not taking it easy.

''Even asking the athletic trainer, 'can't I do a little more' and he kept wanting to hold me back, which now, I'm thankful four,'' she said. ''I didn't want to be complacent.''

Added Robinson: ''We would fight regularly every day for the past year and her wanting to do more. I would get other people to talk to her because I was fed up fighting with her to slow down a bit, to take a day off. Last season, she could only run in a straight line, but she looked like she was training for the Olympics.''

Pierre-Webster definitely doesn't look at 2024 as a lost season, though.

''If I wallowed in self-pity, I would have been in a bad mindset,'' the senior said. ''So I really focused on the team because I was still a captain and what could I do to push the team forward?

''I have become a more vocal player. I have spent more time off the pitch investing in the freshmen, the sophomores, anyone.''

An investment she hopes means another MAC championship.