At the D'Agostino house in Bowie, Md., a Buick is parked on the street and the garage is used for two high-powered motorboats and a host of impressive three-foot trophies.
After winning two stock outboard national championships in 2006 and 2007, Towson junior Valerie D'Agostino has been coined the Danica Patrick of the water-racing world.
"It's pretty much like NASCAR on water, is what we like to say," D'Agostino said.
"It's kind of like when you're driving next to a tractor trailer in the rain, all that spray, imagine that without windshield wipers, that's what we see in the turns."
The finance major, Dean's List honoree, former softball player and self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie has been racing since she was nine years old.
Though a decade ago, the boats she used only reached speeds of about 40 mph, today D'Agostino spends her weekends ripping through lake water at speeds exceeding 65 mph.
"It's more adrenaline than fear. I love the rush and the feeling. I just went skydiving last week and I love roller coasters, anything that gets your heart pumping," D'Agostino said.
A transfer student from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, D'Agostino came to Towson in hopes of being closer to the sport she loves, something she calls a lifestyle.
She competes in races almost every weekend with eleven other boats in the water, all of them vying for the coveted first place finish. D'Agostino is no stranger to the danger the sport has to offer.
"I had a bad crash in New Jersey. Other boats out there are dangerous. If they crash, you can't turn right in these boats," she said, recalling an event she participating in last year. Her mentality, given the inability to turn right is, "go fast, turn left," she said with a smile.
She only suffered minor injuries from the crash, despite being thrust through the center of her boat after a competitor lost control of his watercraft.
"Some people get scared. They crash and get scared and it becomes a fear. They don't want to go out and do it again. But the best thing to do is go out and do some laps. [You] get back into the feeling and not let that fear hold you back," she said.
D'Agostino got into racing via her father and brother. The members of the D'Agostino trio are all multiple national championship winners, with their names firmly etched in the American Power Boat Association's Hall of Champions. She said she looks forward to beating her brother's record of two national championships in August.
"I took me three tries to win a national championship. I choked bad my first time out there," she said.
The boat she uses, an AX Stock Hydro complete with 15-hp Mercury engine, weighs almost as much she does, until she throws on the 30 plus pounds of safety gear designed to prevent cuts and lacerations.
One would never guess that a petite finance major from Towson would dominate a sport predominantly occupied by men.
She said in her last competition, there were only two women, including herself, out of the entire day's races.
"There are different people who take it differently. A lot of guys support it and think its badass and they like it and they root for girls to be role models. And then there are other guys who always complain about it... and [if there's something] they don't like, it gets dramatic in the pits."
In August, D'Agostino and her father will tow their boats several hours north to Whitney Point, N.Y. to join about 600 other disciplined racers in hopes of adding another three-foot trophy to the garage mantel.
"I feel good...I feel prepared, people who work hard, it pays off for them."
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