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30 CAVALIER CORNER EXCEPTIONAL UVA STUDENT-ATHLETES RACHEL ROBINSON Graduate Student • Field Hockey Rachel Robinson's name is etched throughout the Virginia field hockey record book. She is the only five-time All-Region honoree in program history, also earning first-team All-ACC and All-America hon- ors in her time in Charlottesville. For all of her many accomplishments, there is one that will prob- ably never be matched: she is the first four-time team captain in the program's history. Every campaign since her second-year season, her teammates have elected her as the person they wanted to lead them. Robinson hasn't just been lauded for her on-field play. She is equally accomplished in the classroom. She was the 2019 ACC Field Hockey Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the first Cavalier to win that award since 1998, and she followed it by earning an ACC Postgraduate Scholarship in 2020, making her one of two players in program history to pick up both prestigious academic honors from the conference. She will leave UVA as a double Hoo, earning a bachelor's degree in kinesiology last May, and will receive her master's in the same concentration this year. Though she played her final collegiate games last month when she led the Cavaliers to the finals of the ACC Tournament and then into the round of 16 of the NCAA Championship, Robinson is hopefully not yet done playing the sport. She has been a member of the U.S. Women's National Team since 2020 but is still looking to earn her first international cap, something that the "Lord and body willing," she will do. Her long-term goals also are focused on a return to the pitch. "Being a student-athlete has had a lot to do with what I want my future career to be in," Robinson said. "I have developed so much not only as a field hockey player but as a person, which is why I want to come back as a coach. I want to help other young girls develop into young women who not only become the best field hockey play- ers but the best people they can be. "I know it's not an easy job, but I have a lot of passion for this sport and most importantly a passion for helping people!" — Melissa Dudek • Photo by Matt Riley/courtesy UVA Athletics