Laurie Gregg

Tenacious. Perhaps that is the best word to describe Laurie Gregg, on the soccer field and off.

She is the epitome of the women's soccer player, multi-talented and with an exceptional sense for how the game should be played. And she plays the game as hard as anyone ever has.

As for outside the white lines, just how many people do you know who, on their own, have been vegetarians since they were ten years old? How many ten year olds are there who could make a decision like that? And Laurie has not had one bite of meat, fish or chicken since that day back in fifth grade when she told her mother she was a vegetarian from then on.

"I guess when I set my mind to something, I just stick to it," she says with a smile.

Smiles come easily to Laurie Gregg, just as her soccer talents do. The visiting junior from Lehigh has blended right into the Harvard women's soccer team, to the benefit of both. As if anyone ever doubted that she would.

When she arrived at Lehigh two years ago as a freshman, Laurie Gregg had a special plan in mind. But she just kidded about it and let the events take their course.

The problem was that at Lehigh, women's soccer is only a club sport, and not much of a club sport at that.

Laurie found that out right away. "We not only didn't have soccer players--we didn't have athletes," she says. "And you couldn't really demand that much from the players, because you weren't giving them that much."

The team even had to buy its own uniforms and balls. After one week, it all became too much for Laurie and she "just up and left." And that's when Plan B went into effect. She decided to go to the tryouts for the men's J.V. team. She had been training hard over the summer for just such a possibility. But was she ready?

"At the first meeting, I got a lot of stares and laughs. I could have been the manager for all anybody cared. But by the end of tryouts I had earned everyone's respect." And, more importantly, a spot on the team.

"They saw that all I really wanted was to play soccer," she says. And when other teams showed up to play Lehigh, it was an experience.

"You'd see them look at me as I went by, and then they'd look again," she says. "But then after the games I would get a lot of nice comments."

Laurie never started a game for the men's team (the coach told her that her skills were equal to or better than a lot of the players, but that speed was a big factor against her), but in her freshman year she did score a goal, against Allentown State.

"Our team was psyched," she says. And her parents had made the trip down from Wellesley, where Laurie has lived since she was ten years old, for the game. So the goal was extra special. However, something was missing for her at Lehigh.

A Change

"Overall, in my first two years at Lehigh, I really felt that I gained something," she says, "but I needed a change. I was getting stale."

"I know that for some people it doesn't work out here (at Harvard), but all I could think about were the resources and the diversity. I wanted it academically as well as athletically."

Harvard has been everything that Laurie Gregg expected, and her experience on the women's soccer team has been especially satisfying. The team's record as they head into the semi-finals of the Easterns tomorrow stands at 11-4. Laurie has been a big part of that 11-4 record, with nine goals, six assists and all-around excellent play.

"It's been good because it's an opportunity that was never there. The team's treated with respect here, it's a lot of fun and the people are really great," she says.

Laurie was a two-year varsity player in both basketball and lacrosse at Lehigh and is hoping to continue at Harvard in those sports as well. That's a heavy load, with two lab courses, two reading courses, and having to cook your own meals in an off-campus apartment.

And there are other interests besides academics and athletics. Laurie will take a ceramics course second semester at the Radcliffe Pottery Studios, an option that she didn't have at Lehigh, which has no arts program. She did ceramics all through high school, but had to stop when she went to college. She also does a lot of photography, when she's got the time. And writing.

"I like to write poetry and prose," she says. "I would sort of like to write a book."

So where does Laurie Gregg go from here? Her current dream is to go to Colorado next week for the first-ever women's intercollegiate soccer national tournament. Her future interests lie in sports medicine, possibly orthopedics; but before that, there will be some more soccer, maybe in Europe, or, as she hopes, on the not-yet-formed U.S. national team.

"Soccer is great. I love soccer. I love to work at it--and I could work at it all the time."