While Megan Grant – who started her senior season with UCLA women’s basketball back in November – won’t end the season at the national championship game Sunday, Grant will still play when the Bruins take the court in Phoenix.

At Easton Stadium in Westwood, that is.

In an unfortunate twist of scheduling, the senior utility and guard/forward will be busy with what she’s been doing all softball season – drawing walks, firing off home runs and scaring pitchers from all across the country – at the exact same time as the women’s basketball team plays for a national title.

UCLA softball’s game starts at noon, while UCLA women’s basketball will start about 30 minutes after.

UCLA softball coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said the team would love to get through their game quickly – in a five-inning run rule – so that Grant can watch the national championship game.

“Hopefully we’ll be done in five so I can get to watch my girls,” Grant said. “I’m so excited for them.”

Then again, Grant is right where she wants to be – with UCLA softball.

“Of course, she would love to be with that basketball team. Who wouldn’t want to be on a ride to the Final Four, now the championship game?” Inouye-Perez said. “But she’s so committed to this team and this program in her senior year and these seniors that this is her priority, and for her future, it’s a big one.”

Grant joined the rare few at UCLA who’ve become dual-sport athletes, training with the basketball team over the summer and in the fall before playing with the coach Cori Close-led squad through the end of January.

Graduate student forward Angela Dugalic said Grant’s mentality of joy benefited the basketball team before its March Madness run.

“Megan Grant always says, ‘Choose joy,’” Close added. “Joy is not just happiness. Joy is a choice. Joy is a character trait. Joy is a cultural commitment we’ve made as a program to celebrate each other. And that’s what’s been really cool, is they have chosen joy over and over again, and I’m really proud.”

Now, Grant’s first team of the year could be crowned NCAA champions, with her second postseason still to come in May and June.

“Surreal. I can’t say how much I’m so proud of those girls, and they’ve worked so hard,” Grant said. “To be able to witness it, I’m so grateful to be on that side and see everything. And I’m with them along the way.”

Her time playing basketball never took away from her long-term goals. Upon graduation from UCLA, Grant will likely join the Athletes Unlimited Softball League.

So when February brought the start of the softball season, Grant closed her Pauley Pavilion locker and walked up the hill to Easton Stadium.

“From the very start, we said that softball is her priority,” Inouye-Perez said. “This is a draft year for her. She has big plans to continue to play, so we knew that she wasn’t going to miss any softball for that.”

And Grant is having a stormer of a year.

She has 25 home runs and 45 hits through 87 at bats, for an NCAA-leading .687 on base percentage. And no one draws more walks than her.

When she steps up to the plate, a pitcher has to choose whether to walk her or hope they can get a rare strikeout on her – something pitchers have only managed eight times this season. And she’s more likely to hit a home run than she is to reach base with a hit, boasting 25 home runs compared to 20 non-home run hits.

The crowds adore her at Easton Stadium.

Excited whispers echo across the crowd when she walks up to the batter’s box, everyone anticipating a bases-clearing blast. Kids wait for up to an hour to get an autograph from her postgame, screaming her name at the top of their lungs when she walks by.

“Honestly it’s amazing. So grateful for the fans and the kids that we’re inspiring for the future generation,” Grant said. “It’s really cool to hear and see, and it brings a lot of good energy to us as well.”

While the reception was somewhat similar in Pauley Pavilion, with dedicated women’s basketball fans – and her softball teammates – cheering her on when she helped close lopsided contests, things were different for Grant down the hill.

She was not one of the best players on the team and in the country.

What she took away from that experience, Inouye-Perez said, was perspective.

“Her ability to be able to come back and realize how good she is,” Inouye-Perez said. “She’s like, ‘I’m the worst player on that team, yet I’m kind of good at softball.’ It gave her that perspective and balance to be able to appreciate just how good she is out here.”

Inouye-Perez added that she’s grateful to Close for providing Grant with that opportunity.

“She will now have that memory of not only being a fierce softball player, but being a true dual-sport (athlete),” Inouye-Perez said. “She got some minutes, and she played, and the basketball team loved her, the fans loved her.”

Grant will prioritize softball moving forward, but when the Bruins record the last out Sunday, it will be the women’s basketball team’s moment.

“That team is really special, and to know that I was a little speck in that, it’s really cool to say,” Grant said. “They’ve done everything they possibly can, and they’re arriving to their final destination with smiles on their faces.”