RALEIGH, N.C. – Naroa Zubimendi Varela had a decision to make.

After establishing herself as one of Spain’s top young rowers and graduating from high school, she knew she wanted to study and compete in the United States.

But would she do that at a program in transition with a new head coach, or would she choose a program that was a bit more established, with tradition and a history of success?

Ultimately, she decided she wanted to make a difference, and she wanted to do it at Miami where head coach James Mulcahy had just taken over the program.

“It’s not the same to go to a program and just be there because they’re good and you’ll be there and it will be fun,” Zubimendi Varela said. “But when you go to a program where you know you’re going to at least try and make a difference to help the team reach its goals, that’s much more of a reinforcement, I would say, than anything else.”

Four years later, Zubimendi Varela and the rest of Miami’s seniors have undoubtedly helped set the tone for what has been a historic season for the Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes enter this weekend’s ACC Championships on Lake Wheeler ranked No. 14 in the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association top 25. That’s a program high.

They’ll race on the same water where they set four new program records just two weeks ago during their regular-season finale.

And they have their eyes set on making more history by potentially earning a berth in the upcoming NCAA Championships.

It won’t be easy, given the level of competition the Hurricanes will face over the course of the next two days, but Miami’s seniors say qualifying for nationals would be another major step forward for a program that’s already meant so much to all of them.

“It’s been a lot of work over the past four years. It didn’t happen overnight, but every year we got better at something, and I just feel like this year, everything kind of clicked and we learned from past mistakes and improved,” senior Jovana Stanivuk said. “We know this is a hard conference, but we’ve been doing a pretty good job, and we feel confident in our work.”

Added fellow senior Holliday Prichard, “When I came on as a freshman … I knew I had a lot of room to grow, and I knew this team had a lot of room to grow and I sort of knew I was going to grow with the team. And now, looking back on where I am, and where this team is, I feel like we really did that. We really did grow. … It’s just really nice to finally see everything click into place and it’s really exciting to see what this weekend can bring to potentially get us to NCAAs for the first time ever.”

The Hurricanes know they’ll set face a talented and deep field on Lake Wheeler.

Seven ACC teams are ranked in the latest CRCA top 25, with four of those teams – Stanford, California, Virginia, and Syracuse – ranked in the top 10.

The top-seeded Cardinal are also the defending conference and national champions and have won two of the last three NCAA titles.

“The ACC is second only to NCAAs in terms of how, not just how absolutely fast it is at the top end, but also how deep [the field] will be,” Mulcahy said. “It’s a wonderful feature, I think, for any ACC rowing team to know that you get to take part in this regatta every year. … That’s a good feature of this team. Everyone is excited for it. They know how brutally fast it’s going to be and they know how competitive every single placement at the regatta is going to be. That’s exciting, that they get to take part in it.”

But Miami is confident the work they’ve done throughout the regular season has prepared them for the challenge.

This year, the Hurricanes have notched wins over eight ranked opponents and all five of Miami’s boats have seen their times improve since the season opener at the Oak Ridge Invitational in March.

Additionally, at last month’s Lake Wheeler Invitational, the first varsity eight, second varsity eight, first varsity four and second varsity four all set new program records with the 1V8 (6:18.21), 2V8 (6:26.01) and 2V4 (7:16.75) all breaking records they’d previously set earlier in the season.

“The hallmark of this year’s team is that they don’t just like racing. Most teams tend to like racing, and this team does as well, but this team likes to improve,” Mulcahy said. “They like to know why these A, B, C things went well or why these X, Y, Z things didn’t go well. … They’ve done a really great job of embracing improvement from race to race and making racing a more understood, accessible, granular activity as opposed to just this emotional, mythological ‘give it their all’ … I think the regular season racing’s been wonderful because they’ve leveraged all of the resources at their disposal in the pursuit of higher levels of performance, as opposed to externally focusing on stuff like, ‘Oh, did we beat this team?’”

Now, it’s time for the Hurricanes to take on their biggest test of the season, knowing that continuing to improve could take them somewhere they’ve never been before.

It’s an opportunity none of them are taking lightly.

“We know that there’s going to be tough competition, and we know that it’s going to take every single thing that we have this weekend,” Prichard said. “That makes it that much more exciting, to know that we’re going up against the national champions, that we get to race alongside them. Not a lot of people get to say that.”

Added Zubimendi Varela, “We’ve trained so hard, always looking toward this moment. It’s kind of funny that we train all season for six minutes, 20 seconds of a race, but I believe if we trust every single boat, every single person, that makes a difference. Everyone is ready. Everyone is determined to be there and to do it.”