Molly Garrett is getting stronger and stronger.

The Michigan senior has always enjoyed training. She joined the weightlifting team in her last year at Winter Springs High School in Florida, and she qualified for the state championships.

“It was a really cool experience just to be able to do that and get the technique down and push myself in a different way than I would on the lacrosse field,” Garrett said. “I think that really benefited me coming into college to then already have that technique down that we do in the weight room to push me to that next level.”

Garrett’s dedication was recognized the next year at Michigan when she won the school’s Pride Award which is given to the student-athlete who exceeds the expectations of the strength and conditioning program.

“I think I am one of the ones who did do more weightlifting before coming into school than I’m sure others did,” Garrett said.

Garrett remains the strongest in her class. She has benched more than 165 pounds and squatted 230 pounds.

Garrett has also strengthened herself as a player. She was named one of the 27 players on the United States women’s national team roster for the Fall Classic, which will be held Oct. 18-20 at US Lacrosse.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Garrett said. “When I got the phone call this summer to invite me to that training camp, you should have seen the look on my face. It was ‘is this actually happening?’ No way did I think I’d ever receive a phone call to be invited to come try out. It was crazy to go from being a kid from Florida — Florida is on the lower end but it’s growing — and now get the opportunity for the senior team for the U.S. is crazy and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

Garrett is one of five current collegiate players on Jenny Levy’s roster along with Syracuse’s Emily Hawryschuk, Stony Brook’s Ally Kennedy, Southern California’s Kerrigan Miller and North Carolina’s Emma Trenchard.

“I had heard she did well at the first tryout,” said Michigan coach Hannah Nielsen on Garrett. “All the feedback I got was she was incredible, she did so well, she was a stud. Jenny made a point to come up and tell me that. I wasn’t shocked. Molly might have been shocked. I know her work. I get to see it every day.”

Nielsen didn’t take over at Michigan until after Garrett’s freshman year. She wasn’t the one to find Garrett, who was lightly recruited by Division I schools.

“It was not much of a battle, I would say,” Garrett recalled. “My club team, we were in a transition between teams, so it was tough to really have the help to get to know what colleges I’d be interested in and what colleges I’d be able to go to for lacrosse. It was definitely not a very big array of choices. Michigan knocked on my door and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

Garrett visited only one other Division I school, she wasn’t in the pool of players to try out for the U19 national team in 2015, and wasn’t popping up on anyone’s radar as a freshman. She started nine games in her first year at Michigan, scoring just four goals but finishing fourth on the team in draw controls.

“My heart was pounding every second I was on the field,” Garrett said. “I think I was a little bit of a deer in headlights of trying to make sure I was in the right place at the right time. It was a pretty big leap. It was definitely an adjustment period for me to get a grasp of it.”

When Nielsen came in, she saw a gritty player ready for growth. Garrett’s work ethic has helped put her on the national radar after leading a turnaround at Michigan.

“She dedicates herself to everything she does,” Nielsen said. “To be the fittest, fastest, strongest person, she wants to be that. She’s so strong and that comes out in her dodging. So many times, if you watch her film, her leg strength and core strength and overall strength and explosiveness as a player absolutely helps.

A lot of females don’t want to lift because they don’t want to get big and not look good off the field or whatever it is and they have this sort of fear against lifting weights. She dedicates herself to it here and it 100 percent helps her on the field with her quickness, her explosiveness, her speed on her dodging and her 1-vs.-1 defense, they have a direct correlation for sure.”

Garrett’s strength also makes her an unyielding defender. She’s a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree in sport management who juggles coursework, lacrosse training and a recent promotion to barista at Black Diesel Coffee in downtown Ann Arbor. There’s little she can’t do.

“I beat her in spike ball,” Nielsen said. “We are two very competitive people. When we play on the same team, we don’t lose. I’ve still got her number. When I play with someone else, I manage to beat her.”

Garrett says an upcoming team spike ball tournament could change that, and her lacrosse trajectory shows what happens when she focuses on something. She has climbed quickly onto the national scene. Garrett was named All-Big Ten as a sophomore, and last year she became the first Michigan player named to the Tewaaraton Watch List. But it was the invite to the national team this summer that confirmed her growth.

When the training weekend in June started, Garrett was nervous, but her nerves were erased by the confidence that has developed at Michigan and over the summer.

“Just that one weekend was pretty eye-opening to see the level that they played at and see that I was actually able to hang with them and do well in that setting,” Garrett said. “To be able to excel in that weekend only built my confidence more to see I could actually do this. I think that really helped me coming into this year to tackle every day in practice and get to that level that I played with them and even propel myself further.”

Garrett isn’t letting up. Her Michigan coaches frequently have to tell her that she’s run out of hours of permitted practice by the NCAA in a week.

“You don’t become the best unless you want to become the best,” Nielsen said. “That’s the mentality that she has. Fortunately when we came in, we put a heavy emphasis here on individual player development. Molly every single week comes in and does additional work outside of practice on her offense, on her defense, on her draw taking ability, on her center circle work, on her fitness. She wants to be the best. “

Molly Garrett will be among the world’s best when she suits up for the U.S. for the first time to play in the Fall Classic, confirmation of just how strong she’s become as a person and a player.

“To be in that environment where you’re putting on the USA jersey and you’re going out on the field where there’s going to be hundreds of people there and be able to step on the field with some of the biggest names in lacrosse, I’m sure is going to be a really, really cool experience and I’m really looking forward to it,” Garrett said.

“I’m just very grateful that they would want to select me out of the people that were there to come back and play in the fall. I’m very excited to show them that they chose the right person and I can do it.”