Lauren Cadel went from the sidelines to the leader in the net for BG Women’s Soccer in the matter of a season.

The Ontario native earned her spot as the team’s starting goalkeeper after redshirting her first year as a Falcon.

Head coach Lindsay Basalyga said she challenged Cadel last spring because she was unsure where Cadel would fit in the program.

Not playing her freshman year just motivated her to work harder, Cadel said.

“It was difficult not to be able to play because I was still training the same as everyone else,” Cadel said. “It was just always working hard and not being able to be rewarded with time in a game.”

Basalyga said Cadel was redshirted to give her more time to develop.

Cadel took it as a challenge and worked all summer to become a better goalkeeper.

“I think she is a little stubborn, and I think that stubbornness is what is certainly keeping her fighting for a starting role in the program,” Basalyga said.

Cadel transitioned right away into the starting goalkeeper position this past fall, Basalyga said. She said that although Cadel will be a sophomore next fall because of the redshirt, she is a junior maturity-wise, and that maturity will help her team on the field.

“Getting that extra year of growth is so unique and so special for goalkeepers,” Basalyga said. “There’s a lot of leadership that comes from that goalkeeping role, and to have an extra year under your belt and your maturity definitely helps as she progresses through her career.”

Cadel’s extra year of maturity has also given her more confidence, Basalyga said.

“She has a lot of minutes under her belt [from] this past fall, and I think those minutes have raised her confidence overall,” Basalyga said. “We’re really looking forward to seeing what that confidence looks like heading into her sophomore year.”

The team got a glimpse of her confidence throughout the spring. The spring season only made Basalyga more excited to see Cadel’s growth throughout her remaining three years.

“When we were playing against Ohio State earlier in the spring, she came up with … huge saves for us that we didn’t see her making in the fall,” Basalyga said. “I think her bar continues to rise.”

Teammate and roommate Haley Parkinson said Cadel is the team’s calming force on the field. Working in the backfield as a defender with Cadel, Parkinson said she always hears Cadel communicating with her teammates giving them positive direction.

Parkinson said the team is in a rebuilding process trying to grow the program. They hope to change how people perceive the team and to change the culture within the locker room.

“As goalie, Cadel is going to have a huge role in that [rebuilding] because she’s going to be the leader on the field and she’s also going to have to have a presence off the field,” Parkinson said.

Basalyga said Cadel’s leadership will be crucial next year as the team is welcoming 11 new players next fall to the 10 returning. Cadel said her team used its spring season to create a strong core to welcome in those players.

Cadel landed seventh in the nation in saves per game with 7.79 and 26th in total stops with 109. She posted double-digit save totals in six matches, the most by a BG goalkeeper in a single season in school history. Cadel is tied for seventh in the school’s single-season list for total saves and ranks fifth in career saves at the University.

The biology pre-medicine major also received acknowledgment for her work in the classroom, being selected for the 2013 Women’s Soccer Academic All-Mid-American Conference Team with a 3.83 GPA.

Despite these accomplishments, Cadel is still motivated to get better.

“My goals are to just keep improving and just see what we can make of this program,” Cadel said. “It’s [the program] going in the right direction and I really just want to see … how far we can come from my freshman year to my senior year.”