Ashley Kelsey’s bags were already packed.

Mentally, she had already checked out of college.

There wasn’t much left standing in the way of a return to Hawaii following a knee injury in New Mexico’s annual alumnae match six days before the start of her freshman season.

One of the last things on her to-do list was to tell her coach, Jeff Nelson.

“I went in and said, ‘Look, this is where I’m at. I have no family here. I’m far away from home and this is an injury I’ve never had,’” the 2012 Campbell graduate recalled in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Nelson, now in his 12th season with the Lobos, gave a response that changed Kelsey’s life forever.

“He said, ‘You’re going to have to bury me 10 feet underground if you want to leave,’ ” Kelsey said. “ ‘What are you going to do? You’re going to go home without a degree and sit on the couch?’”

The response took Kelsey back to the moment she realized Division I volleyball was a possibility.

At a camp in Hawaii the summer after her sophomore year of high school, former University of Hawaii associate head coach Mike Sealy, who had just been named the head coach at UCLA, told Kelsey she had the skills and talent to be a Division I volleyball player.

Then she came home from school one afternoon as a junior to find her dad, Steve, waiting anxiously.

The first college letter had been received at the Kelsey household.

“I looked and it was from a school in North Carolina called UNC Greensboro, and I was like, ‘OK, whatever, it’s no big deal,’ because why would a school so far away that I didn’t even know about send me things?” Kelsey said. “I opened it up and it said they were interested in me coming to their school to play for their volleyball team.

“That was when everything — my dreams, my aspirations — changed. I was very skeptical I could play at the D-I level, but that first letter was what changed my mind-set. It was go time.”

Two years later, it was go time again as she began the rehabilitation process from a devastating knee injury in which three different ligaments were torn.

Her mind-set had changed, though. She was OK with whatever happened with her volleyball career.

Getting a degree was first on her priority list, and it’s a good thing her perspective changed, because adversity would strike quickly and suddenly yet again.

“About three months after that, I tore (my ACL) again,” she said.

Doctors said after a second knee tear that they could get her back playing, but she might never get back to her old form.

Nonetheless, Kelsey pushed through, vowing not to let that old mind-set creep back in.

Close to a year later, she finally made it on the court in the 2014 season opener. Recruited as a hitter, Kelsey had changed positions to libero and tallied 10 digs, three assists and two aces in a sweep of Seattle University.

It took two years longer than she ever dreamed, but there she was, in a black Lobos uniform wearing No. 8.

Kelsey polished her skills as a libero and eventually became the full-time starter late in the 2015 season.

Last season, she finished second in the Mountain West Conference with 4.29 digs per set, and her 523 total digs were the third most in school history.

“I had never played libero ever (in my) volleyball (career),” Kelsey said. “But as I’ve said before, I relish challenges. There’s something about getting 20, 25 kills a game and getting blocks, but you know what, I thought as long as (coach Nelson) trusted me and believed in me, I’ve got to get that job (as a libero) done.”

New Mexico is 10-6 overall, 2-2 in conference play. Because of a couple of injuries, Kelsey has played a little at outside hitter for the first time.

She’s also the only senior on the team and the age gap between her and the rest of her teammates is even bigger because she redshirted her first two years.

Nonetheless, there’s an opportunity to leave a legacy at a school that has changed her for the better, and just as she did following both knee injuries, Kelsey is not giving in.

“Coming back from two injuries is one of the toughest fights of my life, but I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world because I’m such a different person now than before,” Kelsey said. “Now I’m focused on wanting to leave a legacy of someone who is a hard worker and resilient. I’m blessed to have gone through this and come out on the other side and become such a positive person with a different perspective on life.

“This team is a young team, but we’re getting better each game, so I can’t wait to see where we’re at the end of October. I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people.”