Lauren Purvis is an elite defender on the lacrosse field.
Last week, the Penn State University senior was named the 2014 American Lacrosse Conference Defensive Player of the Year and also earned a spot on the all-ALC first team.
It’s quite an accomplishment for the former Hatboro-Horsham two-sport standout, who is attending Penn State on a field hockey scholarship and started every hockey game for four years.
“Lauren really has great midfield qualities, but having her for a limited time, we wanted to take as much advantage of her as we could,” Penn State coach Missy Doherty said. “She’s just super athletic. She’s really smart on the defensive end, has great game sense, and she’s a player willing to take risks, so especially this year, she was really willing to put herself out there and take some chances, and basically, because of her athleticism, it really paid off for us. It was awesome to see her not just do a good job but be a game changer for us at the defensive end.”
Credit Doherty, who was not the coach when Purvis was recruited, for seeing someone who could excel defensively in the two-time lacrosse all-American who closed out her high school career with 247 goals and 179 assists (426 points).
After seeing action in 28 games in three years, Purvis has played in all 17 this year. She led the ALC with 1.81 caused turnovers a game.
“I never really thought about playing defense before, but it’s really, really fun,” Purvis said. “It’s just the whole team aspect of a defense. You have to communicate all the time. You have to be ahead of the other team’s offense, which can be hard to do. Knowing what they’re going to do before they even do it is such a cool feeling.”
A kinesiology major, Purvis chose Penn State knowing she would have an opportunity to compete in both sports.
“People ask how I do it – it’s second nature,” she said. “Once hockey is over, you put down the field hockey stick and pick up a lacrosse stick.
“It takes more time to get used to lacrosse because field hockey you have preseason for a couple of weeks. Lacrosse, literally you pick up a stick, and you’re like, ‘I haven’t played this in almost a year. What is this I’m holding? Why are these goggles on my face?’ It’s kind of different, but it’s been amazing. I honestly would do it over again if I could.
“Academically, it can be difficult sometimes because you’re on the road for the whole year, so you miss a couple of classes. All of my professors have been great about it. It’s been awesome to be part of two teams that have such great programs, coaches and teams. I’m aware of how lucky I’ve been. I haven’t taken anything for granted.”
Seventh-ranked Penn State will face Princeton University in Friday’s opening round of the NCAA tournament at the University of Virginia.