Emily White sits alone on the sideline of Old Dominion's artificial turf field, removing her goalie pads. After being stuffed under a bandana and goalie mask for the past 90 minutes, her face is flushed and wet. Probably from sweat. Maybe tears. A man approaches, she stands, and he speaks to her for a moment. When he is finished speaking, he hugs her tightly. He moves back to tell her one last thing and then hugs her again before stepping away. She sits back down and continues removing her gear.
Today is not White's best day as a goalie; in fact, it's probably her worst. Her Virginia field hockey team just lost to Old Dominion 11-0, and her statistic line for the game reads 58 minutes, eight saves, seven goals allowed.
"Games like that rattle you," White said later. "It rattled me for the next few days at practice. I thought to myself, 'Can I still compete at this level? I looked at my practices, and asked, 'Was I giving everything I had?'"
To be sure, White, Virginia's exceptional junior goalie from Finksburg, Md., has received more than her fair share of awards. She's been on Junior Olympic and U.S. National squads. She's been named the conference player of the week three times. She's on pace to save more than 200 shots this season, something that has happened only three times in school history and not once in the past 10 years. Heck, she's even appeared in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd."
Her teammates and coaches gush praise when they speak of her game. If it isn't her flawless technique, it's her astounding agility. If it's not her acceptance of leadership, it's her tireless work ethic.
"She's a workhorse," Virginia Coach Jessica Wilk said. "She's got all the athletic tools in the world. She's got a great work ethic to match it. She brings a tremendous attitude. She's demanding of herself, she's demanding of her teammates. I just can't say enough about her as a player."
Without a doubt, White is a primary reason -- if not the primary reason -- for Virginia's No. 14 national ranking and 8-5 mark for the season. All season, the Cavaliers have sputtered offensively with an attack that can be optimistically described as timely but more honestly described as sparse.
Even in Cavalier wins, opponents have outshot Virginia 99-86, while in losses, the team has been outshot 99-19. In Virginia's 1-0 win over North Carolina on Oct. 13, White single-handedly kept the Cavs in the game, making 13 saves on 15 Carolina shots.
"There are times when you think no one could come up with the ball, and she comes up with it -- when you're sure you're gonna get scored on, and Emily stops it," freshman goalkeeper Katherine Blaire said.
She has had so many great games, it would be tough to pick the best one. The obvious choice would be last season's win over No. 1 Maryland, when White stopped an astounding five penalty strokes to give the Cavaliers the victory in overtime.
Last Sunday in the Carolina game, however, she faced an almost continuous array of shots in the second half but turned them all away. Her final stat line might be the most impressive. Shots: UNC 15, U.Va. 1. Score: UNC 0, U.Va. 1. But to count that game as her best would be neglecting a two-day performance earlier this season, when White blocked 17 shots in two games to pitch consecutive shutouts.
"I would put her right up there at the top" with the best goalies in the nation, Wilk said. "She's the anchor to our defense. She's the brick wall back there."
Naturally, White did not always enjoy the success she does today. In fact, she started playing when she was a freshman in high school and claimed she only made the team because of her athleticism.
When she first began, she was a bit of a hard-luck case. Before she played even one game, White broke her hand in practice and missed the entire season. The next year, while warming up for a game at under-16 nationals, she dislocated her hip and missed the entire tournament.
Around this time, White made the conscious decision to work tirelessly on her goalkeeping. In the spring of her freshman year she met John Kovach -- a hockey umpire, coach and enthusiast --who approached her about attending Futures, a developmental program for field hockey players.
"It sounded kind of neat and kind of exciting, and I liked goalkeeping, so I convinced my parents to let me do it," White said. "And John, out of the goodness of his heart, drove me three and a half hours to Futures because he was a coach there."
From this beginning sprung a relationship that only has grown. Throughout her high school career, Kovach privately coached White and opened her eyes to the sport. For three or four hours several days a week, they worked out at her high school's tennis courts.
In many ways, when the time came for White to choose a college, it wasn't a choice at all. For the past nine years, Kovach has been an assistant coach at the University, and White jumped at the chance to continue to work with him.
White speaks with a very obvious love of her longtime coach. When recounting their long history together, she interrupts herself mid-sentence to say, "I just can't say enough about him." They spend the entire school year working together, and for two months out of the summer they run a field hockey camp.
"He's just been so phenomenal," she said. "I can't even tell you. He's been like a father to me. He's been like a best friend. Those words don't really being to describe him. He's been such a presence in my life. He's taught me almost everything I know."
When White suffered through her worst game ever against Old Dominion, it was Kovach who waited for her on the sideline. And it was Kovach who hugged her and consoled her after the game.
There's something you can miss about Emily White if you only watch her tend a field hockey cage. Her grit, her agility, her leadership, that's all very apparent. But there's something more.
It's 11:04 on Tuesday night. The phone rings.
Hello?
"Um, hi, this is Emily. Sorry to call. I know this is weird. I was thinking about one of the questions you asked me today that I said I didn't know."
Okay.
"One of the questions was about what my inspiration was. I told you that I didn't know, but I've been thinking about it, and I know what it is."
Okay.
"It's the adaptive PE kids I work with. They're children with disabilities that I've worked with over the years. They are, by far, the most courageous people I've ever seen. Instead of saying, I can't, they say, I can. They always try as hard as they can, and sometimes they fail miserably, but sometimes they succeed. I feel like I've been blessed. I have a gift that they never got. It's only fair to them -- and to myself -- to push myself as hard as I can."
That dedication should tell you more about White than any impressive statistic or accomplishment could.
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