It’s not unusual for a recruit to have an “a-ha moment,” a confirming feeling that a softball program and coaching staff is the right fit for her.

Usually, it comes when the athlete is on a campus and the various factors—be it the relationship with the coaches, the beauty of the university’s environment, the success (or expected success) of the softball team, the impressive academics or any combination of these—help finalize the decision that “this is the place for me.”

What is unusual is how the answer came to Megan Faraimo, the six-foot 2018 pitcher from San Diego who could have picked practically any university in the country.

Rated as the No. 2 player in the FloSoftball 2018 Hot 100, Megan burst onto the national scene last summer when she helped the Corona Angels win the Boulder Independence Day Tournament in July and then dominated later that month at the PGF 14U Nationals as the Angels won it all.

Megan went off in Huntington Beach and Irvine a year ago, going 8-1 during the title run with 79 strikeouts in 51 2/3^rd innings. Mixing in speed and great movement on her pitches, the young hurler was so impressive that Head Coach Marty Tyson gave her the championship trophy.

This spring, as a freshman at Cathedral Catholic in San Diego, Megan won 15 games and had 221 strikeouts in 135.2 innings—a record for her high school. The first-year varsity player also limited opponents to a .121 batting average while compiling a 0.52 ERA.

In 2015, Megan made a big jump—going from the 14U level to 18U—and, even though the Angels fell short of the title game at PGF, falling 1-0 to the So Cal A’s who finished 2^nd, Megan had another strong week at Nationals going 3-0 and only giving up three earned runs in 24 2/3^rd innings (a 0.85 ERA) while striking out 27 and walking just three.

With all the physical tools combined with a great work ethic and competitive nature to excel, the standout pitcher could have gone to any major program in the nation, but coming from a family of athletes where cousins and uncles played football in the Pac-12 (previously Pac 10), it was apparent early on she’d be staying in the West.

“We didn’t want her to open it too broadly,” says her mother, Marcie, “and she didn’t want to take up the time of coaches outside the Pac-12.”

Megan had narrowed her choices down to UCLA, Arizona, Cal and Stanford and, according to her mother, “tried to make sure she was objective with all the schools by visiting each at least once a year so they were all on equal footing.”

The family knew the decision wouldn’t be easy, but then the decision came literally in the middle of the night.

“A couple weeks ago,” Megan’s mother continued, “as her team was getting ready for PGF, she woke up in the middle of the night about 2 AM and it was clear to her.”

“Megan went to the board in her room and listed the reasons for her pick and later that day spoke to her dad and me. That was the moment we were waiting for, for her to have that conviction and clarity.”

The choice: UCLA.

“All along we’ve encouraged her to take her time and so many have said she’d know when she knows and that’s what happened. Megan was fortunate to have the opportunity available and she was diligent in taking her time and considering things that are important like academics and being close to family.”

The next step was to inform the coaches and on Monday the family drove up to Westwood to talk to the UCLA staff in person.

“Megan told (head coach) Kelly (Inouye-Perez) and Lisa (Fernandez) that she wanted to visit with the plan being to trip to all of the universities before school started. We had set up the UCLA trip after she got the clarity of what she wanted to do so we went to Westwood because we wanted to see the dorms and spend some time with the UCLA players who were there working a camp.”

“We went to the clubhouse and all of the coaches were there. Kelly asked, ‘Is there anything else I can answer?’ and Megan looked at us for the nod and told them, ‘I want to be a Bruin!’”

Not surprisingly, the UCLA coaches were elated.

“As soon as Megan said that, everybody kind of erupted and hugged. The coaching staff was so gracious, even as Kelly was answering Megan’s questions they never assumed anything so when she told them it felt like they were genuinely surprised.”

“We were very blessed in that all the schools have maintained a high level of professionalism and patience,” Marcie added. “We really appreciated that.”

Megan’s commitment adds to UCLA’s already outstanding 2018 class as she’ll join fellow Corona Angel Anna Vines—also a Top 10 Hot 100 player—as well as Arizona infielder Kelly Flynn, NorCal catcher Shea Moreno and catcher Colleen Sullivan in Westwood in three years. Incidentally, Sullivan, also from San Diego, helped her OC Batbusters-Campbell team win PGF 16U Nationals last week.

As good as Megan is on the field, she’s also very talented on the volleyball court and after a strong club volleyball summer began to get heavily recruiting in that sport.

She played varsity last fall and with her Coast Volleyball team played in nationals right before heading to Boulder in early July to pitch.

“Volleyball is good cross-training for her,” says her mother. “Fortunately, there aren’t too many conflicts between the softball and volleyball seasons.”

It’s not hard to see where Megan gets her athleticism: her mother is 6-foot-1 and her father, Bill, is 6-foot-3. She’s sandwiched between two brothers who are also athletes—older sibling Matthew is a senior volleyball player at Cathedral Catholic and younger brother Madden is a nine-year-old football and baseball player.

The plan for Megan is to continue volleyball through high school and see if there’s an opportunity to play at UCLA.

“She’s obviously passionate about the sport and you never know how things can work out. Softball is her future, though, and we’ll let the (Bruin) coaches decide what she can and can’t do.”

Whether she’s competing in one sport or two in the Pac-12 in a few years, the family is appreciative for where the journey has taken the promising prospect so far.

“We feel so blessed,” says Marcie. “After all the work hard Megan’s put in, we’re so grateful for the opportunity and support she’s had with family and coaches. The saying, ‘It takes a village’ is so true… there were so many involved in helping her get to where she is today.”