Grace Moore is about to take the "travel" part of travel lacrosse very, very seriously.
The sport she has adored since sixth grade will take her thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean in January to the Netherlands. It's her maiden voyage with Team Liberty, a Pittsburgh-based lacrosse club that will compete in the Europe Cup.
It's Moore's first trip and tournament with the team, as well as her first trip to Europe.
"It's really exciting," she said. "It gives me a chance to go with ... it's kind of a tour group, but we all have one common thing, which is lacrosse. It's really an honor to be invited to be part of this team."
She was a bit surprised when she got the invitation. Her George Washington High team had played Seton LaSalle High out of Pittsburgh, and Moore didn't think she played all that well in the game. But the Seton LaSalle coach Brian Klisavage - also the Team Liberty coach - approached Moore's parents afterward to see if she'd be interested in joining the Team Liberty roster and zipping off to the Netherlands. She jumped at the chance.
Moore's first practice with the team comes at the end of the month. So the first time playing with a new team comes during a tournament in another part of the world? Understandably, there will be a few butterflies.
"It's kind of nerve-wracking," she said. "I don't want to mess up, but it's really exciting. I've never been to Europe and the first time I'm going, I'm playing lacrosse. And that's really cool because I love lacrosse."
That love began when she tagged along with the family to her brother Sam's games. Watching those, she got the itch to play, and joined the sport in the sixth grade.
Her training period lasted a couple of years. In sixth and seventh grades, there weren't enough girls players around to put together a tournament. So those years were spent drilling and practicing, improving on fundamentals.
Moore said that was crucial to her success when she finally started competing against other teams in eighth grade.
"It definitely helped a lot," she said. "A lot of girls, they learn it a little bit and then they're thrown into a game without really knowing what's going on. I think it really helped to be able to practice, even if it was an hour a week for once a week."
Moore's coach at GW, Greg Mallory, said that experience speaks to her devotion to the sport.
"It speaks volumes for a girl who can sit there and pass for two years and not step onto a field to play, and still carry that passion when she finally does," he said.
Since then, she's developed into one of the top players on one of the top high school lacrosse teams in West Virginia. George Washington won the 2015 state title behind a championship-game MVP performance from Moore. The Patriots reached the state semifinals last season.
In 2016, Moore was named to the West Virginia Scholastic Lacrosse Association's All-Star Game at attack and tied GW teammate Elishia Davis with a game-high five goals in their Blue Team's 22-16 over the Gold Team.
Moore already is the Patriots' career assists leader and is closing in on the career goals record as well. She'll continue her career in college at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Yet, even with all those accolades, Mallory said Moore still plays with the energy she had when she was first introduced to the sport.
"Anybody on the team, if they were to call her right now, she'd drop what she was doing to pass with them," he said. "As much as she's accomplished, she's still excited about the sport and excited to get someone else interested in the sport."
That zeal is one of the things Moore loves about lacrosse. Plenty of players around the country share that excitement, and they're happy to share their expertise with others if it helps grow the sport.
When Moore goes to tournaments around the rest of the country, her teams will line up against programs from states where lacrosse is an institution, rather than a growing sport like in West Virginia. And players from those more established teams will offer pointers to fledgling programs after games, just so that sport can become stronger somewhere else.
There's plenty more to love about lacrosse in Moore's eyes. She has the chance to be a collegiate athlete. She has the chance to explore new lands and new cultures. It makes all those years of hard work worth it.
"It's just so different from any other sport," she said. "I just fell in love with it. It's my whole life."