On a penalty corner in field hockey, one player pushes the ball out from the end line, another stops it at the top of the circle and defenders come charging off of the goal line at whoever is about to shoot. The whole thing is over in a couple of intense seconds.
For Virginia field hockey, a player who regularly steps up to take that shot is fourth-year back Mia Abello. Her routine is built to ensure that by the time that high-pressure moment comes, nothing feels new. Her position, however, is the odd part — being a back, Abello's official job description is to keep the ball as far as possible from her own goal, a task that she completes with an edge.
“As a back, I'd say I'm a very aggressive and threatening defender,” Abello said. “But as far as goal scoring goes, that is more from our corner set plays … I get to take corner shots, and those [are] something I've trained since high school and worked closely with [Coach] Ole [Keusgen] and the stick stopper and the inserter.”
She also leads the team in goals scored this season, having made six so far, and sits on 24 career goals — meaning that opponents have to keep an eye on Abello at all times on both ends of the field. The attacking side is not a departure from her usual play.
“As a defender, I love to attack,” Abello said. “That's just part of how I play.”
That instinct has followed Abello since she first picked up a stick in fifth grade. Years later, it has become part of what makes her an unusual and strong combination of defender who wants to attack, captain who aims to continue learning and high-level athlete who remains motivated by the enjoyment of playing.
Her skills are the result of much hard work. Abello describes years of reps, starting in high school and continuing under the Cavalier coaching staff. Long before the lights turn on at Turf Field for a match, Abello builds her composure through thousands of invisible repetitions to master the small details until her body can react on its own when the game is on the line. Weight room circuits, recovery work with Assistant Athletic Trainer Kat Barnes and analyzing film all help Abello compete at her highest level with the strongest feel for the game.
“My ability to read the game and make more sound decision-making has definitely grown,” Abello said. “Overall awareness and when to go for it and when to possess the ball, when to slow down and when to speed up — all that has grown.”
The international stage tested that awareness when Abello played in the 2023 and 2024 Junior World Cups with the U.S. under-21 team and traveled to places like Canada, Barbados and Chile. She won gold at the 2023 Junior Pan American Championships in Barbados, and has been through training with the national team. Those experiences raised her standard for what competing means.
“The national team provides a whole other standard and way of representing our country,” Abello said. “It's an honor. I love being able to compete.”
What she noticed and had to rapidly adjust to at that level was how little time there is to react. In a game on the national pitch, when a player stops to process what she is seeing, the action has passed her by.
“You don't have time to hesitate or question your decision,” Abello said. “The game is a lot quicker, and you really just see the play and act on it … that speed of the game is something I definitely try to implement here.”
These are the circumstances she is faced with in penalty corner opportunities. Years of studying the movement of the defenders, the position of the ball and the shot she wants to take have made it so her instincts kick in, and her decision to act has been made before the ball even gets to her stick.
As captain, Abello has now had the opportunity to put technical lessons she learned into practice, alongside her understanding of the game’s mental component. Her time on the national team showed her that leadership is most visible when things are not going as planned. After a mistake or a difficult game, Abello would look around at her teammates to see a melange of grit and empathy as they responded with a competitiveness to demand more and an empathy to keep one another looking forward. That experience helped shape the kind of captain Abello wants to be at Virginia — someone who can hold high standards without losing sight of the people working hard to meet them.
It is why the captaincy fits her. Abello said she looked up to the role from the day she arrived at Virginia, and she has come to define her own version of leadership through a combination of work ethic, encouragement and boldness — challenging her teammates to raise their standards and making sure they know she is alongside them as well.
The responsibility fits naturally into a program like Virginia's, with a roster that includes several players competing across various national teams. Second-year forward Riley Savage, for example, has progressed through the U.S. U16, U18 and U21 Junior National Teams. Other Cavaliers have arrived in Charlottesville after developing in field hockey systems around the world. Abello sees that representation as strong growth for the program.
“What I've found culturally is that we continue to raise standards, and every year you see some type of development,” Abello said.
That mindset extends through parts of Abello's life beyond the turf as well. Much of her preparation happens where nobody is watching in places such as the treatment and weight rooms. There, Abello uses tools like rehab, activations and ice baths to reach peak health and explosiveness in every game. She finds joy in learning new ways to study the game through film or training, as well as her academics.
The culture Virginia has built around those standards is organized around five pillars — compete, heart, joy, accountability and gratitude. These pillars are ideas that Abello sees reflected in the way the Cavaliers approach competing and building relationships with one another. Abello values all five, but the third pillar is what really transforms the high-pressure athletic environment into one she is excited to return to every day.
“That joy and the love of the game will always be there,” Abello said. “And the love for the team. That's why I play.”
Abello is a student in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and she treats that side of her life with as much intention as she does her athletics. She uses her academics to explore new ideas to come back to her game with a refreshed mind, and spends time with friends to step away from the field and maintain a life not defined entirely by her sport.
“As much as we can create balance as student-athletes, the more you're able to be present on the field,” Abello said. “It can't all just be field hockey.”
What makes it all work and all worth it is not the film, the sprints or the drill reps. For Abello, all the training that goes into being elite and making competing feel natural only matters if it leaves room for the reason she started playing in the first place — the joy of the game and the people she shares it with.
“How much we enjoy playing and enjoy being around each other makes the game even more special because those bus rides, the way we laugh in the locker room, our warm up, all those details where there is true joy add so much more value when we play,” Abello said.
The next corner she takes will start the way they always do — one player will push the ball out, it will be stopped at the top of the circle and the defenders will begin to run. Abello will be waiting, surrounded by the noise and movement she has spent years learning to read. And when the work she has already put in has done its job and the noise around her is at its loudest, she will be having fun.
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