WHITTIER, Calif. --- Jay Perez is a dual-sport varsity athlete at La Habra High School for one more season, but then she'll whittle down to one sport and play softball at Biola University beginning in fall of 2016.
 
Perez is a four-year varsity outfielder for the Highlanders and two-year varsity tennis player. The versatile athlete has won athletic achievement awards in both sports through her high school career.
 
"Jay was a team favorite from her first recruiting camp at Biola," said Head Coach Lorie Coleman. "She is an excellent outfielder and effective slapper with an intense competitive edge."
 
As Biola's lineup continues to restock with bigger, more powerful bats, the addition of a solid slap hitter comes at the perfect time in the 2017 season when the team will need to retool the top and bottom of its lineup.
 
Perez won the softball and tennis "most improved" awards at La Habra in 2014 and then followed with a "most outstanding player" honor in softball in 2015. She's earned a Player of the Week honor and her leadership abilities also earned her the 2013 "most inspirational" award in tennis.
 
Perez has played softball for 11 years and will have at least five more now that she's committed to join Coleman's squad in La Mirada.
 
She's had a 3.5 grade point average or higher three times through her first three years on high school and plans to major in biology when she arrives at Biola.
 
"I chose Biola because I have aspired to go and play softball there ever since I was little," said Perez. "When I finally went to the camps, met the coaches, and other great people at Biola, that's when I found out what the true essence of Biola really is; it felt like that's where I felt most at home and where I could be myself. I felt that God was telling me that's the place where He's been leading me towards, that my time there will change me for the better and that He has a bigger reason for me attending Biola."
 
Perez graduates from La Habra High School in spring of 2016 and begins classes at BU that fall. She will lace them up for the Eagles for the first time in spring of 2017. She plans to enter a career in chemical research.