After a record-setting high school soccer career at Northwestern, Sarah Segan will head for the College of William and Mary to continue her career at the Division I level. Segan signed her letter of intent at a ceremony on Wednesday and is looking forward to the next part of both her academic and athletic life.

After considering other schools, Segan felt most comfortable with William and Mary after finding a lot to like about the school. While she's not completely sure about the specifics of what she wants to major in, Segan does know that she wants to pursue something related to the field of medicine.

"Basically, I liked everything," said Segan. "The location was great, the academics are fantastic and the soccer is fantastic as well; it has everything I wanted. Virginia was my furthest; that was definitely pushing the limit. It's where I wanted to go and that's fine for me, but I probably wouldn't have gone any further than that."

Segan leaves Northwestern with 139 goals and 39 assists, making her the all-time scoring leader in the school's history. She was named the Times News Player of the Year the past two seasons and helped guide the team to championships in both the Colonial League and District 11 in both of those seasons.

Segan also plays basketball and competes in track. She may have excelled most at soccer, but Segan believes that experiences from all three sports have helped to play a role in her success.

"All of the sports had their impact," she said. "With every sport, we've had our complications, we've had our championships and we had to work hard through all of them. I've worked basically with the same girls and have worked with Sabrina [Mertz] for three years and it's just been great.

"There's no one thing that stands out as the most significant. The fact that you were able to get those championships, that's something that you can take with you for the rest of your life."

Northwestern soccer coach Kelly Bleam is proud of both the athletic and academic success that Segan has had in high school. Bleam helped to guide Segan and teammate Sabrina Mertz, who will attend Lehigh in the fall, through the process of making decisions that would get her to a school that was a perfect fit for her, but she left the decision completely up to her standout players.

"Both Sarah and Sabrina were involved with ODP, the Olympic Development Program, and Sarah went on to regional camp and made the regional team, so we shared that and I followed that with her," said Bleam. "The advice that they sought wasn't really about which schools, it was just about getting there. They knew that they were going somewhere to play and it just had to feel right and I know with Sarah when she went to William and Mary, she just knew that was the right one.

"All of the doors were pretty much open for them They just needed to make a decision."

Segan knows that transitioning from high school at Northwestern to college is going to have some tough spots, but she and Bleam believe she'll be up to the task.

"The first year, I'll just be focused on getting settled and making sure that I transition well," she said.

Sending two of her players to Division 1 schools is a proud moment for Bleam. She's already come to the realization that there is really no replacing either Segan or Mertz on the field or off at Northwestern, but she knows both will do well. For the record-setting Segan, she may be leaving the area for college, but a big part of her will remain at Northwestern.

"She's a great kid in the classroom and out. She's a wonderful student-athlete," said Bleam. "To look to replace someone like her is impossible. Her place is secure here at Northwestern."