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Bruins free kick over the crossbar. A crowd of more than 10,000 was on hand that night in Cary, N.C. "She lines up, she gets crossed and — boom — big save," Dziczkaniec said. "And she's a first-year. But that's who she is." Stearns, from a military family, has called a variety of places home. She first attended Lake Braddock High School in Northern Virginia before moving to San Antonio and graduating from Claudia Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson High School. Her college plans, however, never strayed from the obvious. "From day one, from the time I was pretty much born, I was wear- ing a UVA cheer uni- form," Stearns said. Her parents, Chris and Laurel, are Vir- ginia alumni. Her grandfather, Raymond Stearns, is a former Cavalier lacrosse player. Her mom was on the dance team. Stearns grew up attending camps at UVA. She committed to Swanson as a sophomore in high school. "There was really never anyone else in the picture," Stearns said of the recruiting process. "There were other schools, but for me, in my heart, there was really never anyone else. I looked at some other bigger schools, but there was just nothing else. For me, when I came to Charlottesville, when I came to these games, this was home. I couldn't see myself anywhere else. "As an athlete, you just have to think, 'If I get hurt tomorrow and I'm done forever, am I going to be happy at the school?' That was a big part for me, too. I knew that I would love UVA no matter what I was doing." Last spring, Stearns was the recipient of the Gray-Carrington Scholarship, presented annually by the UVA Alumni Association to a student who demonstrates exceptional personal integrity, achievement, leadership and humility. "It's been easy to work with her because she's so motivated and committed," Dzicz- kaniec said. "It helps that her family has a history here at Virginia. I think that in itself makes her have that pride. And when you play or train or study with a lot of personal pride or family pride, it washes over everything you do." The Stearns-Swanson relationship has been built on trust since the coach started her regu- larly over the 2013 sea- son. No true first-year had done that at Vir- ginia in 13 years. "Morgan had played at a very high level coming into college," Swanson said. "She had played on a lot of the youth national teams. So the transition soccer-wise was very easy for her. "She's such a mature person she didn't get bogged down on academics or being away from family. It was a pretty smooth transition for her academically, socially and soccer-wise. That's not the norm, and she deserves credit for that." Just as she does for all those shutouts. "Our main goal, outside of winning a national championship, winning an ACC championship, is to score as many goals as possible and give up as few goals as pos- sible every single game," Stearns said. "I'm thinking in terms of stopping every single thing that I can." ◆ "From day one, from the time I was pretty much born, I was wearing a UVA cheer uniform." STEARNS