D’Andrea’s love of language led her to Emerson.,Peruse the D’Andrea family library and you might find a few peculiarly-bound books tucked between the classics. These construction-paper-and-string creations bear the by-line of Emerson junior Lindsay D’Andrea, scrawled in a child’s clumsy script.

D’Andrea’s love of language led her to Emerson. Her love of soccer has led her to make an impact on the turf, in addition to the one she makes on the page. She is the women’s soccer team’s leading scorer, with eight goals and three assists to date.

She said the combination of the school’s location and program

made Emerson a perfect fit for her interests.

“My sophomore year in high school, since I got the brochure, I knew it was exactly where I wanted to go,” she said. “I wanted to live in a city because I can’t see myself living in a city after college.”

She brought with her a background steeped in athletics.

Growing up, she played casual sports with her family as a tradition, and in addition to soccer, she played lacrosse, street hockey, basketball and ultimate Frisbee competitively.

D’Andrea said her athletic schedule and academic pursuits keep her constantly engaged.

“I think it’s actually easier to balance work that way. It’s easier to manage your time when you have a lot to do,” she said.

Her teammates said her presence

on the roster is key to the Lions’ success.

“Shes always the one who’s willing to give 100 percent,” said Brittany Jones, a junior political communications major and teammate. “That’s something

that can put you over the top in a close game. You need someone like that on the team.”

Though D’Andrea has always been a key cog in the Lions machine, her performance this year is commanding. Last season, D’Andrea led the teams in shots taken, with 106, and was third in goals scored, with nine. Her eight goals this season have come on just 63 shots, a significant improvement. D’Andrea said she worked hard in the offseason to improve her scoring percentage.

Initially, D’Andrea wasn’t sure she wanted to play soccer at Emerson, having not played during the second half of her high school career. However, she quickly found catharsis on the field.

“Playing a sport while I’m focused on school is kind of necessary for me, because if it’s completely academic, I feel like I need to get out,” she said. “It’s sort of like a therapy.”

Though she always loved writing,

it wasn’t until high school that D’Andrea fully realized the depths of the literature world.

“In high school I read “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It was the first piece of more advanced literature

that I read,” she said. “And it ripped everything open for me. I was overwhelmed by how much I liked it.”

She also cites the works of e.e. cummings as a major influence and as proof that language

has no limits. She has a tattoo of an ampersand, one of cummings’ trademarks, on her wrist.

D’Andrea realizes writing may be an unrealistic goal, but, in her eyes, doing what she loves is more important than making a living. She said her professional goal is to be accepted into the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, a world-renowned graduate writing program at the University of Iowa.

Right now D’Andrea’s main area of literary interest is poetry, though she says she may soon broaden her horizons.

“I look at poetry as this step that gets me to other places,” she said. “I feel like I’m going to get into fiction, and maybe after that I’ll get into novels, but after that, I don’t really know. As long as I’m writing, I think I’ll be fine.”