Moments before kickoff of her first game with the Cougars, Keara Fitzgerald started the same pregame routine she had for her whole career. Turned on her playlist, stretched and meditated. As the lights above Lower Soccer Field shined down on the redshirt-senior making her first start at goalkeeper in a year and a half, she felt the nerves but treated it like any other game of her career.
In her Cougar debut, Fitzgerald saved six shots in front of 2,317 Cougar fans and reminded herself of all the hard work she put in to get back to this point.