JARED SOARES | The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech's Matt Epperly (left) works out with teammate A.J. Johnson.

JARED SOARES The Roanoke Times

Matt Epperly defeated the top three seeds in the ACC tournament to win his weight class and earn a berth in the NCAA tournament.

Virginia Tech's Matt Epperly (left) works out with teammate A.J. Johnson

Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

BLACKSBURG -- Lower back stress fracture.

Emergency appendectomy.

ACC championship.

Those three things don't seem to have a lot in common.

Matt Epperly gets it. This was the chronology of events that has transpired since he arrived at Virginia Tech following a stellar wrestling career at Christiansburg High School.

Epperly's rise to a championship in the 165-pound division and most valuable wrestler honors in the ACC tournament two weekends ago may not sound like a big surprise for the 2006 Christiansburg graduate, where he wrestled for current Virginia Tech coach Kevin Dresser and earned four state titles and a scholarship with the Hokies.

But considering how his college career began, the fact that Epperly is preparing to compete in this week's NCAA Division I wrestling championships, is rather remarkable.

A lower back injury sidelined Epperly for his freshman year.

Undaunted, he rested and went through therapy, trying to return to wrestling shape.

"[He was] off the mat about eight or nine months. That's a long time in our sport," Dresser said. "Matt's progress from the beginning of the season until now is leapfrog in terms of improvement. He got beat up a little bit at the beginning of the year. Now he's progressing."

As Epperly was putting together a fine comeback season, another medical stop sign threatened to halt his progress -- an emergency appendectomy.

"It just came out of nowhere. I was in so much pain and the doctors were like, 'All right, were gonna cut on you.' So I thought the season was over right there. I was like, 'Man, two years in a row. Last year I broke my back and this year ...'"

This year wasn't over, however, Epperly returned in time for the tournament, where he knocked off the top three seeds on the way to the conference title and spot in the NCAA championships, which begin today in St. Louis.

"That's just crazy," he said. "This year, I definitely didn't think I'd make it there at all because I had that emergency appendectomy three weeks before nationals and I didn't even think I was going to wrestle in the ACCs, and then I ended up shocking everybody there.

"I beat the ninth-ranked kid [North Carolina's Keegan Mueller] in the finals that beat the crap out of me (10-0) before when we wrestled in January."

Epperly got redemption at the tournament, recording a 7-2 overtime decision over the Tar Heel in the finals.

But to focus on this one season is to ignore what Epperly, Dresser and the rest of the young Hokies (16 of the 26 wrestlers are freshmen or redshirt freshmen) hope to accomplish sooner rather than later.

"The direction we want to go is we want to be a top-10 program, that's our goal as a coaching staff," Dresser said. "We've got the kids in the room to be really good."

Epperly is a prime example for Dresser to display.

"When you have a freshman that can step up and win the ACC and then, on top if it, get named the outstanding wrestler of the whole meet, I think it shows our young kids you don't have to stick around and wait till you're an upperclassman to make your mark in this sport," Dresser said. "Epperly's making his mark right now,"

Epperly couldn't agree more, laying out lofty short-term goals for himself and the team.

One of those goals is he would like to raise Tech's collective IQ when it comes to wrestling. But how can that be done in a place so immersed in its football program?

"Once we start getting ranked [and] start winning more matches and stuff," Epperly said. "It's going to take probably two more years of rebuilding, and we're going to be on the map nationally. Once we enter that Top 20, Top 25 as a team, people are going to start recognizing [and] say, 'Hey, Tech's doing something.' [Then] we're going get more acknowledgement."

Right now, the rest of the team has only Epperly to represent them on college wrestling's biggest stage. They have to hope a similar future waits for them.

"I hope it motivates the team, you know?" Epperly said. "Once they go out there and see what [the NCAAs are] all about and hopefully motivates them to want to do well in the upcoming years."

On that stage, will he perform? Will he slow down?

An injured back, appendectomy and wrestlers from all over have failed to stop Epperly.

And his approach to the national tournament seems sound.

"Just wrestle man," Epperly said. "Just go out there. You can't be nervous."

And after what he's already overcome to reach this point, why would he be?