When the women's basketball team drove back to Brandeis from a second-round NCAA Tournament loss in Union, N.J., most of the Judges had varsity athletics in their rearview mirror. But that wasn't the case for reserve point guard Lauren Rashford '10, who hopped on a plane the next night to Alamonte Springs, Fla. for the start of the softball season. "It was obviously very hard to lose because we all wanted to go really far in basketball, . but then I knew I had to leave the next day to fly out to Florida, so it was a crazy transition," Rashford said.

Playing a second varsity sport began as a joke for Rashford. During a class last fall, she quipped with her friend, shortstop Chelsea Korp '10, about the possibility of joining the softball team in addition to her basketball duties.

But what started as playful banter became a reality when Rashford approached softball coach Jessica Johnson last fall about joining the softball team. Now, the guard who led all Brandeis bench players in steals last winter will be looking to tally steals of another kind-bases-as a pinch runner on the softball team this spring.

"The more we talked about it, the more I was like, 'You know what? Actually, I would love to play two sports,'" Rashford said. "The more I talked to [Korp], the more she was saying that they could use me as a pinch runner, and I thought it would be fun and interesting to try something new."

Two-sport athletes were more common in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but women's basketball coach Carol Simon said Rashford is the right person to turn the trick.

"[Rashford is] just a great athlete," women's basketball coach Carol Simon said. "A kid like that can really go into any role, I think, on any team. She's that versatile that she can make that big of an adjustment going from basketball to softball."

After discussing membership on two sports teams with Johnson, Rashford spoke to women's basketball coach Carol Simon. Simon had experience coaching multisport athletes, having been both the head basketball coach and assistant softball coach during her first six years at Brandeis, and she approved Rashford's decision.

But Rashford's basketball teammates, though supportive, were disappointed about losing the centerfielder of their championship intramural softball squad, since varsity athletes aren't allowed to participate in their own varsity sport for intramurals.

"We're kind of bummed though, because our [intramural] softball team was the champion last year, and now we lost [Rashford]," forward and women's basketball co-captain Cassidy Dadaos '09 said. "She had a good arm, and I think she was a pretty good hitter."

Rashford hadn't played competitive softball since she was in eighth grade, but she dove right into the team's University Athletic Association schedule. Despite barely practicing with the team before the trip, she still made a contribution, playing in six of the team's eight conference games and scoring the squad's only run in her second game, an 11-1 loss to Emory University March 11.

"For kind of jumping right into it after basketball and only having one practice with us, she did really well," Korp said. "I know she hasn't played softball competitively in a few years, but she definitely picked it right back up."

Even when her inexperience seemed to show, Rashford, in fact, already knew what she was doing, as she displayed in a March 13 win over Case Western Reserve University. She immediately picked up Johnson's signal to leave first base just before a pitch was thrown, but the umpire called her out for taking an early lead.

"We had an umpire [that] I call 'Eagle Eye,' so he caught [Rashford], and he called her out," Johnson said. "We're looking to take any advantage we can, and we got caught, [but] she was doing exactly what she was told to do."

For now, Rashford's speed, which was pivotal to her success as a key reserve on the basketball team, will be her chief contribution to the softball squad. She stole her first base in last Thursday's 3-3 tie in the second game of a doubleheader against Wellesley College.

"[Her speed] was very helpful to us, but I think it will also be helpful to the softball team where they're going to be able to steal [and] just be more versatile, probably on the base running," Simon said.

Enabling Rashford to steal second are her white cleats, which Rashford said have already been broken in and dirtied.

"Those are my special cleats," Rashford laughed. "I actually ran out to Dick's [Sporting Goods], and I got a pair on sale for like $40. I didn't really know if there was a special kind of cleat you had to have, so I saw the white ones, and I was like, 'That's me.'"

Johnson said Rashford's experience playing in the NCAA Tournament for the basketball team in the last two years may also make a difference on the softball field. In Johnson's first season, the Judges made the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament for the first time in school history and hope to go one step further to the NCAA Tournament this season.

"[Rashford's NCAA experience] is definitely something we look forward to utilizing should we get the call in May," Johnson said. "It's just a different stage that you're on when you get to that level, so hopefully we can benefit from using [her experience]."

What may have started as a joke has now become a new endeavor, and Rashford is taking it very seriously.

"I think my role is to be a team player and help out the teams in any way I can, whether that means being aggressive and stealing bases or making nice passes and setting my teammates up on the basketball court for a nice jump shot," she said.