Getting the opportunity to play field hockey in college is something Grace Shanton had always dreamed of.

Knowing she gets the chance to compete at the school on the top of her wish list made it even better.On Wednesday, the Lehighton senior signed her letter of intent to play field hockey at Temple University."It's so exciting," Shanton said of the opportunity to play for the Owls, a Division I program. "Field hockey is definitely my favorite sport, and I've been doing it since I was so young. So it just feels really good knowing I get to continue doing what I love the most."And Shanton never wavered when the time came for her to settle on where she wanted to continue her field hockey career."This was definitely my top choice," Shanton said of Temple, which advanced to the BIG EAST semifinals this season. "I was looking mostly at other Division II and III schools. I looked at a couple of Division I schools, but Temple was my No. 1 school."Shanton, who will receive a partial scholarship and major in biochemistry, became familiar with the program through a variety of offseason workouts, and made her verbal commitment to the school last February."There was definitely a lot of contact. Every single camp that I went to was a ton of one-on-one with the coaches," she said. "They help you with every single thing that you need and it was just great."Then Indians have a long history of producing Division I talent.One needs only to look at their coaching staff to see two former players, 2010 graduates Abby Frey and Corrine McConville, who played at the next level. Frey starred at the University of North Carolina, while McConville excelled at the University of Albany.The Temple roster features two former Lehighton standouts in Sarah Keer and Maris Stern.While the familiarity helps, Shanton acknowledged she decided on Temple without any influence from former coaches or players.But it certainly didn't hurt."I think it helped toward the end," Shanton said of knowing she will be surrounded by former Lehighton players. "I wanted to get as far as I could on my own without saying, 'She's there.'"But I think that'll definitely make the transition from high school to college so much easier knowing that my family is there. It will feel a little bit more like home."Lehighton head coach Karen Wall has watched Shanton, who has provided vital leadership from her center-mid position, and the team's other seven seniors grow from freshmen playing on the junior varsity team to leaders of a squad that earned a state playoff victory Tuesday over New Hope.Though she doesn't have much time to reflect on it now, seeing Shanton and others prepare to take the next step in their careers is a special moment for Wall."Most of the time, we have to focus on this season and what's in front of us," said Wall. "But when I get the emails saying, 'Hey coach, I'm going here,' or, 'Hey coach, I'm going there.' It's very exciting."They work hard. They well do unbelievably well and they'll make wonderful contributions to the program."