Freedom's Lauren Musselman and Kelsey Brandle both made their collegiate decisions public last Wednesday at a press conference held at the school.

The two seniors represented what the ultimate goal of high school athletes can strive for -- getting an education and being successful at sports at the same time.

Musselman will go on and continue playing field hockey at Sacred Heart, while Brandle will keep her love for softball going at Goldey-Beacom University in Delaware.

Sitting among their peers last week inside Freedom's library, the duo moved closer to achieving their goals of becoming collegiate student-athletes.

"I knew I wanted to play field hockey in college from the first day I started playing," said Musselman. "I was excited and nervous for this day, but I'm just happy that it's over with and that I can look forward to the next step in my life."

Musselman had weighed the options of playing at East Stroudsburg or Gwenydd-Mercy, but the prospect of playing Division-I field hockey for Sacred Heart was too hard to pass up.

"Sacred Heart was a nicer school than both and it was Division-I," Musselman said. "It's much smaller than other schools and that was an important aspect for me."

The small school theme was prevalent with Brandle as well in choosing Goldey-Beacom, as she appreciated the close knit feel of the team, as well as their track record for having a quality Criminal Justice program.

"I've been dreaming of this moment since playing tee-ball, so I'm very excited," said Brandle. "They made me feel like I was part of a big family there and they had a great program for what I wanted to study as well. I was just looking for a program that suited my needs and they were the best fit."

Musselman also plans to study criminal justice at Sacred Heart, but will miss her time at Freedom once she graduates in June.

"I've learned so much here over the past four years," she said. "It was great being apart of the Freedom family, but now I'll be apart of the Sacred Heart family and that's exciting."