Sharon Versyp will have to add a shooting guard to her list of University of Maine women’s basketball recruits for the upcoming season.

Freshman Kelly Manning, whom Versyp recruited as a shooter last year, has been forced to leave the team because of knee problems.

Manning, a 5-foot-11 sharpshooter from Charleston, W.Va., underwent a second surgery Jan. 4 to repair anterior cruciate ligament damage in her left knee. It was the same knee which had caused her to miss her entire senior season at Fountain Valley (Colo.) High School.

On the advice of her doctor, Manning will no longer be able to compete at the Division I level because of the injury. As a result, Manning has left the team and is no longer enrolled at UMaine, according to UMaine athletics spokesman Joe Roberts.

Manning did not appear in any games for the Black Bears this season. She averaged 21.8 points, 10.2 rebounds, 8.4 steals and 4.7 assists during her junior season at Fountain Valley.

“She was going to be something special,” Versyp said recently of Manning, a lefthanded shooter who possesses a tremendously quick release.