When she returned to Duke for training camp this August, senior Rebecca Moros didn't have the usual what-I-did-on-my-summer-vacation story to tell.
Moros, one of the women's soccer team's tri-captains, spent the past summer playing for the Under-21 U.S. Women's National Team. Her experience, which began when she trained with the team in the spring, culminated in a selection to compete for the United States in the 2006 Nordic Cup in July.
The team-coached by UCLA's head coach Jillian Ellis and composed of college and high school players from across the country-spent two weeks in Norway for the tournament and lost to Germany in the championship game, 2-0.
But Moros' summer didn't end with that loss. After completing her stint with the U-21 team, Moros returned to the United States and played for the Long Island Fury of the Women's Premier Soccer League, an elite amateur league.
The midfielder scored the game-winning goal for the Fury in the league's title match July 29.
Now at the beginning of the Blue Devils' season, the two-time All-ACC honoree is bringing her experiences back to Durham, where she is expected to be a team leader for Duke in the fall.
"Consistency is really important as a leader," Moros said. "People can look to you and they know what they're going to get from you game after game-that's priceless for me. Working on developing that in that kind of environment just makes it easier to execute it here."
Moros said her consistency was one thing the national team coaches encouraged her to develop during training. The positive qualities noticed by the national team coaches have been apparent to Moros' teammates and coaches at Duke for three years.
"People respect Rebecca because of her passion for the game and the way she takes care of herself," head coach Robbie Church said. "They see what she's capable of and they say 'this is what it takes to play at that level.' Any time you train with the best we want you to bring that back to show the rest of the players what it takes."
The senior's national team experience began in March when Ellis chose Moros as one of 25 athletes to participate in a 10-day training camp.
Missing classes for several periods of time-including one during finals week for a trip to Holland and Germany-Moros trained with the pool until she was finally selected to the U-21 team in June. Although she was was absent from Duke's spring practice at times, Moros did not feel it affected her role on the team.
"I missed some things but I made it back for pretty much every game we played so I didn't feel like I was letting people down," Moros said. "It makes me a better player, which helps me come back here and be a better player here, and [Church] is absolutely supportive of that."
The midfielder said she enjoyed her times with the other girls on the national team, from dancing in the hotel rooms to walking down cobblestone streets to visiting the harbor in Norway. But she also said she is excited to be back with her team at Duke, trading international adventures for activities like team mini-golf in Wilmington, N.C. during preseason workouts.
"You're meeting people, you're having a good time, you're playing soccer," Moros said of national training. "Duke is really like a family, I don't know any other way of describing it."
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