BOCA RATON, Florida — Nine hours after her stellar NCAA Division I career came to an end in a 1-0 defeat to Florida State, Morgan Brian was scheduled to hop on a plane to join the U.S. Women’s National Team for a tournament in Brazil.

The hectic sequence summed up her last three seasons in college soccer, as she’s bounced between her college team in Charlottesville, Virginia, and international duty with the USA.

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Although her college career didn’t end on the ultimate high, the conclusion of her time in Division I is only the beginning of what could be a tremendous professional and international career.

“She’s a kid that’s had a great career and her future is very bright,” Florida State head coach Mark Krikorian said about Brian. “We’re all looking forward to her jumping on the U.S. team and helping them as they pursue the World Cup in Canada [next summer].”

Before she even arrived in Charlottesville, Brian was seen as a star in the making. A consistent member of the U.S. U14 and U15 Girls National Teams and the No. 1 recruit for the class of 2011 according to TopDrawerSoccer.com, she made the U.S. U17 World Cup roster in 2008 and 2010. She was the Gatorade High School National Player of the Year and Athlete of the Year, the Parade National Player of the Year. The accolades were endless before she even arrived at Klockner Stadium.

So expectations were high when she began her collegiate career at UVA. But she almost never arrived at the ACC powerhouse, as the St. Simons Island, Georgia native originally committed to stay in state and play at Georgia.

“I’m very close with my family and a lot of my friends went to Georgia and I think the program itself, they were going to do good things in the future, and I wanted to be a part of that,” Brian said of her original commitment. “I loved the idea of being close my parents and they could come to every game. I think that swayed me a little bit in that regard. But like I said, things happen for a reason and I’m really glad that I chose University of Virginia and I think that was where I was supposed to be in the end.”

Sometimes top recruits fail to live up to the billing once hitting the college ranks, but Brian never did. An NSCAA First Team All American, ACC Freshman of the Year and Hermann Trophy semifinalist in 2011 she hit the ground running. Her second year at Virginia was abbreviated, playing just 15 games because she was a critical part in the U.S. U20 WNT’s World Cup win in Japan.

Last summer, she won her first cap with the full national team, and that provided a springboard to Brian’s sensational 2013 season, where she was named the Hermann Trophy winner and TopDrawerSoccer.com Player of the Year, scoring 16 goals and 14 assists for the national semifinalists.

This season, along with leading Virginia to the NCAA title game, Brian split time with the full team, missing eight college games while on national team duty for CONCACAF qualifying and friendlies.

According to her teammates, that was never a distraction for the midfielder.

“I think the one thing I admire about her is when she’s back from the national team and she’s with our team, the focus is on Virginia,” midfielder Danielle Colaprico said. “It’s never about her playing on the full team, it’s always focused on what we’re doing. She’s always with us, and she’s focused on winning our games and it’s never like ‘oh we lost, whatever, I’ll go back to the national team.’ It’s always about being there for our team.”

Brian paid tribute to her teammates as she juggled a demanding schedule balanced between chasing an education and competing on two high-level soccer teams.

“At the beginning of the season, I knew this could be a possibility of sharing time with the national team and the program here at the University of Virginia,” she said. “For me it was focusing on school and soccer and playing the best I could for whoever I was with… It has been better than what I thought it was going to be and it was easier than what I thought it was going to be and I think it was a testament to the team too. They have been very supportive in what I have done and I’m appreciative of that and I think that is a good thing for how easy the transition has been for me.”

After the tearful end to the season at the hands of UCLA last fall and losing a significant amount of seniors, Brian, along with Colaprico, played a pivotal role in helping shape UVA into almost a better team in 2014.

“The great thing about [Brian and Colaprico] is that they really changed our culture in the sense of getting the new players into the program and making them believe that they can have an impact, showing the ropes a little bit,” Virginia head coach Steve Swanson said. “That was the biggest thing we needed to do this year was integrate half our team into the culture of UVA soccer and get them to play at a certain level. Over the course of the year, these two in particular, have done that. If we’re successful, that’s the reason.”

Not only did Colaprico and Brian help change a culture this season, they were at the heart of some incredible soccer. A possession-oriented team that emphasized attacking soccer, the Cavaliers finished the season with 88 goals, the best in the nation. Brian finished the season with 10 goals and 14 assists in 18 games, and is a semifinalist for the Hermann Trophy.

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A traditional attacking midfielder with tremendous soccer IQ, she showed at the College Cup that she can be a two-way player, chasing after athletic attackers on Texas A&M and Florida State. And while she puts in the work off the ball, it’s when she’s in possession that something special can happen. Her pass on a dime to teammate Makenzy Doniak to set up Virginia’s opening goal in Friday’s win over Texas A&M, exemplifies her vision and ability to create chances in the final third and make game-changing plays.

Along with her teammate Colaprico, she’ll leave a legacy to be remembered at Virginia.

“I think these two to my left [Brian and Colaprico] are the two of the best that have played at Virginia,” Swanson said. “They’re just great people to be around…We have a lot of players like that on our team. They’ve had great careers, and there’s a lot of sadness now but there is a lot of pride in what they have accomplished, what they have done and how they have conducted themselves. Sometimes you say it is not what you do and what championships you win it’s how you conduct yourselves. I couldn’t be more proud of these guys."

New beginnings await for Brian in 2015, tipped to be the No. 1 pick in January’s National Women’s Soccer League college draft, and she’ll almost certainly have a part to play in the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

So while her career at UVA may have ended in disappointment on Sunday, bigger and brighter things are right around the corner.

Image credit: Matt Riley, UVA Athletics