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14 CAVALIER CORNER BY MELISSA DUDEK T he year: 2019. The location: UVA field hockey's signature blue turf. The time: Overtime. This wasn't overtime of any random game. This was overtime of a nil-nil tie against Maryland in the Elite Eight of the 2019 NCAA Championship. Virginia was playing for its first trip to a Final Four since 2010. With 4:32 remaining in the extra period, Maryland was whistled for a foul in the circle, setting up a Virginia penalty corner. Rachel Robinson, the squad captain, took a shot from the top of the circle, aiming her ball at a perfectly placed stick at the corner of the cage. The stick belonged to Annie McDonough. "I didn't want to lose," McDonough re- called. "I was also angry. Earlier that game, I scored a goal, but it got called off by the refs, and I was so mad. Overtime, in gen- eral, is a lot of pressure, and you have to stay calm. In my mind, I was like, 'We're not losing.' "Before I got the ball, I kept going to the circle and was saying, 'Hey, we're going to score, we're going to score.' Then the corner came. [Head coach] Michele [Madison] always says, 'left hand on the ground.' That's the biggest thing in goal scoring. And so I did it, and it went in. It was the best feeling ever! I hope that happens again." It is partly that "hope that happens again" feeling that has McDonough returning to the Cavaliers for her fifth year and her second as a team captain. "I always had it in my mind that I wanted to stay, but I did want there to be a reason for me to stay that wasn't just hockey," she said. "It needed to make sense for me." McDonough found that reason. She earned her bachelor's degree last May in cognitive science with a minor in entrepre- neurship, but as a third-year she decided to switch career paths. "I want to go to nursing school," Mc- Donough said. "I didn't decide that until my third year, which was annoying because I needed prerequisites to get into a nursing school that I didn't have. I started taking them during my third year and took some over the summer at a school near my house. Right now, I'm in the professional learner program at the School of Education and Human Development, but I can also take my nursing prerequisites, which is su- per nice." It was field hockey that led her to dis- cover her interest in nursing. "I have compartment syndrome in my legs, and during my third year I was getting tested for a bunch of other stuff to see if it was other things," McDonough said. "There was this one really helpful guy that I met. I knew he wasn't a doctor because the doctor was coming after him, but he was always doing tests on me and asking a lot of questions. "I asked what his job was, and he told me he was a nurse practitioner. I thought that was kind of cool. I always liked the medical field and found surgery and tests interesting, but I didn't think I could just switch majors. I feel very lucky to be able to do this." The Cavaliers are equally lucky to have McDonough return for her second stint as team captain. "Having Annie back really helps me," Madison said. "She brings maturity to the team, but I also appreciate her insight and being able to run things by her. "On the field, I can play her anywhere. She reads the game and anticipates really well." This season, she is on the front line for the Cavaliers, playing at the striker position. Or she is at least some of the time. Listed as a midfielder on the roster, she is a versa- tile player who has played every position on the field except in the cage. Her efforts have flown somewhat under the radar most of the time because she often builds plays instead of finishing them. That changed last season when she received her first conference ac- colades as she was named to the All-ACC second team. McDonough is a seasoned veteran, not just because of her four seasons with the Cavaliers. She has been playing the sport since age 5. She grew up in the sport's hotbed, Pennsylvania. Her hometown, Ken- nett Square, (also known as the Mushroom Capital of the World), is an hour outside of Philadelphia. It was also the same distance to where Central Pennsylvania's powerhouse club team, the WC Eagles, have their home base. Playing for the Eagles has taken Mc- Donough all across the globe. "We went to China for two weeks when I was 16 years old," McDonough said. "That was so much fun. We were more immersed in the culture rather than just staying in touristy places. We stayed in smaller areas where we could interact with the people there. "You could see how different it is, and it was a shock to me. I'd never been in an area where I was trying to communicate with people by nodding. Most of the people had never met Americans before, and they would follow us around and ask for auto- graphs which was so crazy because I was just a 16-year-old playing field hockey." Playing with the Eagles also helped Mc- Donough develop another set of hockey skills, indoor hockey skills. After playing at the club level, McDonough began to rise within the USA Field Hockey ranks. This or- ganization also oversees the national indoor teams. She earned a spot on the senior national team while still in high school. Mc- Donough played the indoor game through her second-year season at UVA, winning a gold medal at the Indoor Pan Am Games in Guyana in 2017 and a bronze at the 2020 World Cup in Vienna, Austria. "When we won the gold at the Pan Ams [the first ever for the U.S. Indoor team], there was so much cheering and music and celebrating and running around with the American flag," McDonough said. "It was cool to be standing on the podium with our BACK FOR MORE Annie McDonough Returned To The Cavaliers For A Fifth Season, Eyeing A Championship Run And A Future Career In Nursing McDonough, a two-time captain for the Cavaliers, earned second-team All-ACC honors last season. (Photo by Matt Riley/ courtesy UVA)