From basketball court to lacrosse field, Dillon builds on prolific Tufts sports career

Entering Tufts as a member of the Class of 2018, rising junior Lauren Dillon may not have expected to take over as point guard for the women's basketball team — a 2014 NESCAC Champion and Final Four participant — especially before conference play even started. She also may not have expected to be a two-sport varsity athlete, competing both on the court and on the lacrosse field, by her sophomore year.

"I played lacrosse all four years of high school. It was kind of always thought of as like my second sport, to both soccer and basketball, but toward the end I really started to love it," Dillon said. "I see a lot of basketball and soccer in lacrosse, and both of those are sports which I really love. Going into the college process, I did want to play multiple sports. It just didn't turn out that way and I ended up at Tufts with basketball."

After two years at Tufts, Dillon has locked down a starting spot on the women's basketball team, who advanced to the NCAA Div. III championship in Indianapolis this year, and joined the women's lacrosse team this season, playing in one of the country's toughest conferences.

Dillon came to Tufts with four years of varsity sports experience from nearby boarding school Noble and Greenough in Dedham, Mass. A member of the soccer team in the fall, the basketball team in the winter and the lacrosse team in the spring at Nobles, Dillon was no stranger to a full athletic schedule.

She stressed that playing all of the sports she loved and not just specializing in one sport at a young age has been the most rewarding part of her athletic career. It has indeed paid off — the Boston Globe named Dillon the 2014 New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) Female Athlete of the Year, awarded to a "standout three-sport athlete who has demonstrated success in both the classroom and on the field or the court," the Nobles school website said.

Dillon claimed that the diversity of her athletic experiences prepared her for the challenge of competing at the collegiate level.

"From season to season in high school, I couldn't tell what my favorite sport was ... I wanted to keep doing each of these three, and whichever one I was in was my favorite sport," she said. "Sports teach you so many different things, and I think I gain the intangibles in sports as a person more than I do as a player ... The intangibles are what's important to me and I think you learn that when you play multiple sports."

Transitioning to Tufts, Dillon's sports career at first seemed to be heading in a different direction. She joined the women's basketball team for the 2014-15 season and started out getting minutes as backup point guard behind Kelsey Morehead (LA '15), the Jumbos' longtime offensive orchestrator. Morehead and her classmates led Tufts to its first NESCAC championship and first Final Four appearance in the national spotlight in 2014 and returned as seniors looking to take the Jumbos even further. Though Dillon was still adjusting and finding her role on the team, her contributions off the bench throughout the initial two months of her first season were substantial for a rookie.

Before NESCAC play even started, however, Dillon was thrust into a starting role — Morehead went down with a leg injury in late December, and Dillon had to step up and shoulder the responsibility of running the offense. She picked up right where Morehead left off, guiding Tufts to another 10-0 NESCAC regular season. Morehead returned in time for postseason play and Tufts — now equipped with two dynamic guards capable of controlling the game — earned a second consecutive NESCAC championship title and again advanced to the Final Four.

Although Dillon grew tremendously in her role on the basketball team as a rookie, she had her sights set on adding lacrosse to her collegiate sports rotation from early on.

"I had had a couple conversations with my basketball coach about [playing lacrosse]...and she was kind of hesitant at first," Dillon said. "And then I came to her after the [2014-15 basketball] season ended and...she gave me the go-ahead."

Though Tufts women's basketball coach Carla Berube would have been understandably hesitant to let her starting point guard out into another sport, with increased risk of injury or other possible scheduling or commitment complications, Berube was supportive of Dillon's plans. She knew that Dillon was a strong all-around athlete with a passion for multiple sports and encouraged her point guard to follow her interests.

"It wasn't a big discussion," Berube said. "I want her to have the best experience she could possibly have here."

Because the basketball season ran late in 2015, though, Dillon ultimately decided not to join the lacrosse team during her first year at Tufts. She would have had to transition to the new team right in the middle of the spring season, making the process too rushed.

"I tried out and decided not to play just because I wasn't sure I could handle it," she said. "I just wasn't sure it was going to be healthy for me mentally and physically. I wasn't sure I was gonna even be able to get all my skills back ... and it was such a big commitment that I just wanted to take my time with the decision, and I didn't have time."

As soon as she decided to hold off, though, Dillon's real desires became clear.

"Throughout the spring it was clear to me that I regretted my decision, and I knew I wanted to play the next coming year," she said.

From that point on, it was all but settled. By Fall 2015, Dillon arranged with both Berube and coach Courtney Farrell for women's lacrosse to play lacrosse from the beginning of her sophomore year. Dillon said that this put her more at ease to join the new team and allowed her to get to know her future teammates, and begin preparing to resume her career on the field. She went to lacrosse practices in the fall to get touches and learned the team's drills with the help of her new teammates.

"We knew she was a talented lacrosse player, so when she told us that she really wished she had played last year, after giving some time to think about it, we were excited about that," Farrell said. "We let her know that whenever basketball season was done she was welcome to join our team and that we would welcome her with open arms."

Dillon took her roster spot and made her way back to lacrosse this season. However, because the Jumbos advanced to the NCAA Div. III women's basketball championship this year, and that championship was held two weeks later than usual due to the 35th anniversary celebrations of the women's basketball championships, Dillon missed about half of the lacrosse team's regular spring season games.

Basketball is Dillon's first sport at Tufts, she explained, and that becomes an issue when the winter and spring sports schedules overlap. Regardless, the women's lacrosse program has welcomed Dillon as a member of the team's family all the same, making it a seamless transition.

"It was a special year and sort of a unique year in terms of the timing of things," Farrell said. "For basketball, that's a one-time thing and a really special opportunity for women's basketball to be a part of that national championship with all three divisions there, and we were cheering them on the whole way. So we knew it was a possibility that we wouldn't get [Dillon] until a couple of weeks left in our season, [but] she's a talented athlete and she's transitioned really nicely into the team."

Most impressive of all has been the dedication with which Dillon has navigated her two-sport undertaking.

"I think we got back from Indianapolis on Wednesday morning and I practiced Thursday," Dillon said. "We had a game on Saturday so I felt like I needed to get out there."

Not only has she made time to practice and play as a committed member of both teams — sometimes even running from basketball practice to lacrosse practice — but she's made a noticeable impact across the board. 

"We have her playing low defense for us right now," Farrell said. "And after having played defense for coach Berube, I think she was well prepared to play defense for us. The games really aren't too different, especially defensively."

For Dillon, taking on this new endeavor has felt like a smooth adjustment, both in embracing her defensively-minded role on the field and in connecting with her teammates and coaches.

"I think it can be a very hard thing to welcome this person who hasn't been with you for the entire year," Dillon said. "I think they've ... been together for six months now, and I just haven't been as available and haven't been a part of it. I think it can be really hard to accept someone new, but I feel so welcome by them. They've made me feel like I've been there the entire time. I really enjoyed getting to know all of them and I do feel like I fit in."

The lacrosse season ended for the women's team in the NESCAC tournament's quarterfinals, when they fell to Middlebury 14-10 on April 30. Although lacrosse provides Dillon an extra season to stay in shape and develop athletically, it's a lot of wear and tear for Dillon to manage. She looks to rest up and heal some nagging injuries — an elbow problem that has plagued her since she's been at Tufts and plantar fasciitis in both of her feet — over the summer.

Berube said that Dillon's drive and spirit keep her point guard eager to take on the challenges that playing two sports presents.

"She's such a competitor and wants to compete at everything she does and sitting around — not that we sit around because we have our post-season — but she's always wanting to play and to compete," Berube said.

While playing two college sports gives Dillon extra championship opportunities, teammates and athletic accolades, her reasons for playing both basketball and lacrosse boil down to simply following her passions.

"Just doing what you love," she said. "I love sports, I don't just love basketball, and having the chance to do it all year long has been really great for me."