By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications
 
Miranda Royds is as upbeat and positive a person as they come.
 
She's someone who others love to be around (it's in her nature), but something Miranda does every day gives her perspective and keeps her upbeat.
 
"I have a journal and at the end of every day, I think about three things I'm grateful for," she said. "It could be little things, but it keeps you in the right mindset and helps you realize that even if you had a bad day, it wasn't that bad."
 
Whether Royds has a good or bad day, her mentality – "everything is a learning experience" – keeps her grounded and allows for continued growth in all aspects of life.
 
A multi-sport athlete who's majoring in bioengineering, Royds takes every opportunity to learn. In just her third year at Lehigh, Royds has already developed into a standout goalkeeper on the soccer field, while excelling on the track as well.
 
There's one common theme in all aspects of Royds' life… competition.
 
"With track, you're competing in every single thing you do," she said. "With soccer, you're doing the same, but it's in different shapes and forms."
 
Keep the word competition in mind when thinking about Royds' story. 
 
That story began when the Ambler, Pennsylvania native committed to Lehigh for soccer. Before Royds' freshman year, the idea of running track entered her mind, but she wouldn't pursue it until after the fall soccer season.
 
"I had run track to stay in shape and enjoyed it," said Miranda. "My dad ran track and cross country at Drexel. He never really pushed me to it, but thought I'd like it."
 
Royds was aware that multiple Lehigh women's soccer student-athletes also ran track (Clare Severe and Mary Casey, among others), which head women's soccer coach Eric Lambinus fully supported.
 
"After the fall soccer season was over, I talked to assistant track and field coach Deb Utesch and was welcomed on the team," said Royds.
 
"Miranda presented herself as the type of student-athlete who would be mature, responsible, resilient and motivated to balance her life to excel in multiple areas," said Utesch. "She also came to my office with good high school track personal records, but more importantly, good references from classmates who spoke to her character, positive demeanor and enthusiasm.
 
As Utesch continued, "Lehigh is a special place that promotes extensive collaboration to make it possible for our student-athletes to excel in multiple pursuits if they desire. I have a great working relationship with Eric Lambinus. We have worked together to create an environment where these multidimensional student-athletes can pursue both sports with their academics."
 
Track and soccer are very different, but there are some similar concepts.
 
"Clare Severe used to say that track is all about numbers; it's a very concrete sport," said Royds. "Things are more direct to success whereas in soccer, a lot of other variables go into it. Track has taught me to be competitive and really 'bring it' every day, which has translated a lot to soccer."
 
On the soccer field, Royds went from not seeing action as a freshman to starting 11 games as a sophomore (and posting very solid numbers). She started all 18 games as a junior and posted an 84.9 save percentage and 0.82 goals against average (second and third in the Patriot League, respectively).  

Royds has developed from just a goalkeeper into a true leader and anchor for Lehigh's defense.
 
It wasn't by accident.
 
"At the end of the 2018 season, Miranda and the coaching staff sat down and put together a plan to help her work in the areas she needed to improve," said Lambinus. "Not only did Miranda completely buy into the plan, but it was also her idea because she wanted to become the best version of herself for the program. One of the areas was to improve her ability with her feet, so we basically had her become a field player for the winter portion of our season. For a goalkeeper who was also running track, that was a big ask to put herself in such an uncomfortable setting…
 
"And to do it with a smile and positive attitude, just like she approaches everything she does, allowed (and continues to allow) her to grow and get better every day."
 
Naturally, as Royds has gotten better, she has become more and more confident.
 
"Being a Student-Athlete Mentor today, I see how freshman year can be really tough. It was for me," said Royds. "Everyone adapts differently, but I had great role models to follow. You come in so used to playing all the time and you're forced to compete every day.
 
"Sophomore year, I believe I grew into an LUWS player," Royds continued. "This past year, I was able to find success knowing that since I'm older, I needed to be that example for the younger girls to keep raising the standard of the program while bringing my teammates along with me. That's what upperclassmen did when I was a freshman, so I wanted to give back."
 
Royds has given a lot to those around her, understanding the importance of strong relationships which directly correlates to trust on the field.
 
"A huge reason Miranda has achieved the success she has on the soccer field is because of her increased self-confidence and ability to make meaningful connections with the team," said both soccer and track teammate Mary Casey. "Miranda's team first-mentality allows the rest of the team to place complete trust in her, which has helped increase her confidence. No one else sees the countless hours of training she puts in behind the scenes, but that has propelled her to become one of the best in the league."
 
"Miranda's teammates trust her because they all know she's put in the work to become the best version of herself," said Lambinus. "When they saw how much she improved last spring because of her work, it was easy to trust that Miranda was going to play with confidence and consistency. For the goalkeeping position, consistency is probably the most important trait a player can display and once she showed that consistency throughout the entire spring season, we all knew Miranda was ready to take on a bigger role for our team." 
 
Royds has developed meaningful relationships with her track and field teammates as well. On the track, Royds primarily runs middle distance such as the mile and 3K. One of her outdoor events is the steeplechase.
 
"The steeplechase is the distance event that requires a higher level of athleticism and kinetic awareness that she brought from her soccer background," said Utesch. "She only picked up this event as a college freshman and has already become a Patriot League scorer."
 
Even though it's a pretty individual sport, Royds doesn't take her track teammates for granted.
 
"We have a lot of great runners for steeplechase," said Royds. "We have people like Maura Henderson, Ashleigh Crawford, Nicole Abbondandelo and Martina Sell. Stacie Nadel graduated last year. Training with these girls make you better every day."
 
Royds puts her heart and soul into everything she does across both sports, but one of her strengths is staying even-keeled.
 
"I took the losses we had this year (on the soccer field) really personally," said Royds. "I always looked to myself, asking what I could have done better. I'm very hard on myself, but at the end of the day, you have to learn from each experience."
 
Royds often asks herself one thing she did well and one thing she could have done better.
 
"After every game, I would look at the time and give myself an hour to dwell about a loss, but that's it," she said. "After that, what's the point of overthinking it? You can make the choice of learning from it, or having it keep dragging you down."
 
If you're around Royds enough, you realize nothing seems to drag her down. Academically, if she doesn't do as well as she would have liked on an exam, she learns and grows from it, looking forward rather than lamenting the past.
 
"Out of every experience you come across, there's something you could take from it," said Royds. "You can only beat yourself up about it for so long."
 
Royds needs to have that mindset to be able to balance essentially three full-time jobs as well as she does.
 
"I've learned you don't always have to work harder, but smarter," said Royds, who is studying the materials and mechanics track within her bioengineering curriculum. "It's something Coach Lambinus always harped on. Freshman year, I used to try and do everything. It was a waste of my time because I wasn't doing the right things."
 
"I overworked myself and wasn't seeing any of the results," she continued.
 
"Being in the engineering school, I'm not going to sit here and tell you it's easy. I've learned a lot as an engineer. I've learned to problem solve, which should translate in a number of aspects in my life." 

 

Royds' life is about to get as hectic as ever (not that it wasn't before). Every spring semester becomes especially busy, balancing her academics, in-season track and spring soccer.
 
"Miranda has to communicate on a regular basis with two sets of coaches – sharing practice and competition schedules – and then be organized enough to schedule a full recovery day," said Utesch. "On top of that, she needs to be organized with her academics and work consistently with professors to be sure she's absorbing all her engineering material."
 
Speaking of engineering, Royds has garnered impressive engineering experience. Last summer, she served as a project engineer intern at ABEC, a company at the forefront of innovation in biopharmaceutical manufacturing technology.
 
"I worked with bioreactors and very technical things within the biopharmaceutical industry," she said. "I could see myself working in technical sales and working with people."
 
Miranda understands the importance of people and relationships. In fact, appreciation of others is often what she writes about in her journal.
 
"I have a lot of gratitude for the people around me," said Royds. "I often wonder if I'm spreading myself too thin, but at the end of the day, I wouldn't do anything differently.
 
"I'm offered so many opportunities here. If people didn't help make that happen, I wouldn't be sitting here in front of you today."

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