The one they call "Bus" will one day be a teacher.

Up and down the field senior midfielder Lindsay Michuda goes, controlling the ball with unbreakable confidence and feeding her teammates with seamless precision.

In other words, Michuda does exactly what good instructors do; she teaches by example.

"She's the hardest worker I've ever met," senior forward Kristie Matola said of Michuda. "I've never seen her slack off."

A major reason for Michuda's work ethic stems from her lack of size and her unwillingness to let that hinder her play.

"I make up for being small by thinking big and playing big," Michuda said.

At 5 feet, Michuda might appear to opposing teams to be an easy target to push and pull all over the field.

Notre Dame tried that tactic last Friday night in the Big East semifinals, but Michuda had none of it — fighting off all Irish on-comers and throwing in a few slide-tackles of her own.

"Lindsay provides such a huge spark for us," senior defender Heather Goranson said. "She was getting knocked around a lot (against Notre Dame), and she still stood her ground."

Hey, it's hard to stop a bus.

Early on this season, Michuda battled through a knee injury that occurred because the cartilage between her femur and her tibia is wearing away.

Michuda tore her ACL in eighth grade and was told she was bound to have knee problems later on in life.

Dealing with periodic soreness, Michuda played sparingly in the first few matches of the year but never stopped working to return to full health.

By the end of the regular season, Michuda had become a fixture in the starting lineup and led the team with eight assists.

But more than the grit and determination the undersized midfielder brings to the field, Michuda's teammates are most impressed with the caring demeanor she brings to the team.

"A lot of it is her personality on and off the field," freshman defender Allison McBride said. "It's not just soccer; it's her being a good friend."

It's Michuda showing freshmen like McBride "the ropes." It's Michuda managing the midfield and setting up offensive strikes. It's Michuda standing tall against all those bigger opponents.

Really, it's just Bus doing what she enjoys the most.

"I love interacting with people," Michuda said. "The satisfaction that you get from helping people is a great reward."

One area in which Michuda could use a little help herself is in finding the true origin of her nickname.

What is certain is that "Bus" was born at a Marquette soccer camp the summer before Michuda's senior year of high school.

What is uncertain is whether size played any part in the matter.

"When I was recruiting, I asked (Michuda) what she wanted to do when she grew up," assistant coach Frank Pelaez said. "She said she would probably just be a bus driver."

Other witnesses (then-club soccer teammates Goranson, Matola, and Ashley George) saw it differently.

"We were joking with Frank, and we told her when she grew up, the only job she could have where she would be taller than the people she worked with was a bus driver," Goranson said.

Regardless of how the name came about, "Bus" has developed from a cruel joke into a productive mentality.

"Lindsay's a great competitor with tremendous heart," head coach Markus Roeders said. "She plays a lot bigger than her height."