Freshman Longwood lacrosse player Nicole Fordyce, an Auckland, New Zealand native, knew the transition between different sport programs wouldn’t be easy and came into the season with the expectation of competing at the collegiate level in a country where the sport is much popular.
“I expected a big jump on the level because you are training every day with your team, so I was expecting it to be a lot harder," said Fordyce. "The transition was a lot easier from teammates because you come in and everyone is so welcoming."
Despite the difficult transition and pressure, the 5-foot 6-inch attacker has already made herself a contributing member of the team this season with 11 goals and seven assists, as well as a shot percentage near 40 percent.
Fordyce said her game has developed and evolved over the course of her freshman year.
“For previous teams I’ve been a lot more of a support player, but here they are pushing me to step up, taking the drive and going for goal,” said Fordyce. “It is really exciting that as a freshman that they are able to trust me with those situations.”
Head coach Elaine Jones has set expectations of her freshman player, who has been impressive so far to start her first spring season.
“There are all sorts expectations and demands that go along with starters. She plays attack so the expectation is that she scores, connecting the midfield, transition, and assist, typical stuff for attackers,” said Jones.
Fordyce participated in lacrosse in high school as something to branch out, unknowingly paving a path of future success.
“In New Zealand, lacrosse is really small, and I thought it would be a fun social thing,” she said.
Fordyce was also a soccer athlete during high school, noting the importance for improving her athleticism.
“It’s important to play different sports because you get so many get so many skills and different eye coordination, and you also get a lot of different coaching styles,” said Fordyce.
Fordyce was a member of New Zealand’s 2017 world cup squad and was in high school when the selection process for training squads occurred. She, along with some other younger players, went for the experience, but realized their dreams of being part of the final team was true after the downsizing of the squad.
“It was amazing and really cool. You had a lot of pride for you were doing and every single game counted because it had to do with your overall rankings,” said Fordyce.
This all led up to Fordyce finding out about Longwood University when she was back in New Zealand. For her, it was destiny from then on.
"For the national team we did a lot of touring in America for practice and warmup games," Fordyce said. "The head coach of Longwood, Elaine Jones, she was at one of the warmup games and saw me playing.”
