"I played on the varsity team at my high school for my last three years," Francisco says. "I was not really the girl with all the talent, I was the one who went diving for the balls."

Consistent and determined, Francisco helped her team to the state's top eight her junior and senior year. But Francisco knew this was not going to be where she was going to make her mark.

When Francisco started thinking about college, she knew that going to college was going to mean playing college hockey. It was something that always had been in the back of her mind, and as she put more thought into what she was going to do after high school, she sensed that her plan had to include hockey.

"How was I supposed to say to a coach, 'I really want to play for you, but I haven't played for five years?,'" Francisco says. "That's really hard."

Francisco knew it would be difficult to jump back into the sport so late in the recruiting process, but she proceeded to look at some schools across the country and talked to a few coaches.

In Harvard's Coach, Katey Stone, Francisco found someone that was very willing to listen to her story.

After speaking with Stone, Francisco realized she had two options--give it a shot and come to Harvard or stay at home and attend Minnesota-Duluth, which was scheduled to field its first women's team in what would have been Francisco's sophomore year.

The latter seemed like a reasonable choice to Francisco. The extra year would give her the chance to get back on the ice and provide her with the time she needed to refine her skills.