Midfielder Addie Wadley had no prior experience in lacrosse when she decided to join Biola’s team her freshman year. Now, as a junior, she’s not only the co-captain of the team, but eligible to be named All-American in the Div. II Western Women’s Lacrosse league.
Throughout high school, Wadley excelled in soccer but decided not to play on the collegiate level. After coming to Biola, Wadley realized that she missed the competition and fun that sports had provided for most of her life. She decided to try out for the lacrosse team after seeing flyers for the club around campus. After making the team, Wadley took on the challenge of transitioning into a completely different sport.
“I think the biggest shock was that we had to wear skirts,” Wadley joked. “But really the biggest transition for me was probably just switching to a hand-eye coordination sport because I have never really done that.”
Despite the major differences in the two sports, Wadley’s competitive drive and dedication pushed her to sharpen her skills.
“She worked really hard to be at the level she is at now,” senior co-captain Lindsey Welch said. “She would work hard in practice and then take the time to work on her skills outside of practice to be a better player and it paid off.”
DRIVE AND DETERMINATION
Waldley jumped from averaging .33 points per game in 2012 to 2.91 by the end of the 2013 season. This season Wadley has destroyed her own personal goal of averaging three points per with a total of 4.50 points per game. Wadley has also tallied up a total of 32 goals this season. Her stats have placed her in the 10th position in the Div.II league.
“Her freshman year you can see that she was not one of the leading scorers that we depended on,” Welch said. “However now she is our leading scorer. The offense really looks to her for her leadership on the field to take control and get the goal.”
The women only have two more games left in their season, both will be held in Santa Barbara. Despite having a few very close games the Eagles were only able to pull out one win this season against Humboldt State.
“A lot of the times team don’t expect us to be very good and we have surprised every team this year,” Wadley said. “Every coach will come up to us and tell us that they were really surprised by us.”
Wadley’s hopes for next season is to see the team achieve their first winning season. There is no doubt that Wadley will continue to be dominate force on the field and push her team to the next level as a future senior leader.
