The referee calls a corner. Mason White pushes the ball, Carrie Goodloe stops it and Jess Coleman hammers it into the goal with her favorite shot, a drag flick that goes airborne.
Coleman wasn't always a power scoring field hockey forward. She began playing in the sixth grade as a goalie so that she could start. As a Cavalier, she played on both the back and mid lines before finding her niche at forward.
"Field hockey is a game of finesse," Coleman said. "Not just brute strength and physical ability."
Coleman has been using her finesse successfully to put the ball in the goal throughout her collegiate career. She currently leads the nation in scoring with seven goals and led Virginia in scoring in 1999 and 2000. In Virginia's 3-2 overtime win over Ohio Sept. 8, Coleman reached the 100-career point plateau by scoring the game-winning and game-tying goals. Coleman attributes her success partly to her family and loved ones who have been, according to Coleman, "ridiculously supportive."
This season, she adds the role of leader to her role as goal-scorer. She treasures her position as a senior tri-captain and strives to be a guide for the younger girls on the team.
"Physically, she is such a presence on the field," Virginia coach Jessica Wilk said. "With her size, speed, strength, she adds another dimension to play."
After taking the 2001 spring semester off to train with the U.S. national team, Coleman returned to the Virginia for her final season with the Cavaliers. Her experiences with the Junior World Cup Under-21 national team and the U.S. national team helped her improve her field hockey abilities, but in the end she decided that school was just too important for her to miss.
The powerhouse forward hopes to complete her English major and possibly become a graduate assistant or a social worker helping families, taking with her some of the skills she learned in field hockey.
"I'm really excited about this year," Coleman said. "We are really pulling together. This is the ideal team for a senior captain. The three of us [co-captains White, Goodloe and Coleman] are really close so it is a lot of fun."
Each captain holds up a different line, Coleman leading the offense, Goodloe the middle and White the defense. This organization forms the backbone of the Virginia team and they have formed a close bond.
"Jessie Coleman has a silent power," White said. "She is such a strong player, its almost mystical in the way that she just kind of appears when we need her"
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