Virginia field hockey just so happens to be ranked third-best nationally right now. To date, the Cavaliers boast a 10-1 record with high hopes entering an arduous stretch of ranked matchups. At the core of the Cavaliers’ success is junior midfielder Daniela Mendez-Trendler, who impresses on and off the field — in the classroom and beyond.
A three-year starter, Mendez-Trendler garnered First-Team All-Region honors from the National Field Hockey Coaches Association in 2023. In that campaign, she led the squad in goals and points in and was also ranked second on the team in assists.
This season, she has yet again been key to the Cavaliers’ success. Through 10 games, Mendez-Trendler has five goals and four assists, plus a total of 14 points on the season — which leads the team. She is obviously an incredibly talented player, which dates back to her childhood.
For Mendez-Trendler, field hockey has always been her sport of choice — her mother, Aileen, was a four-year player at Iowa and won a national title with the Hawkeyes in 1986. Daniela started playing the sport herself at eight years old.
“I wanted to try it out and see how it went,” Mendez-Trendler said. “We would start playing in my driveway [and] I fell in love with it and never looked back.”
Along with her passion for the sport, Mendez-Trendler is motivated by her close-knit team. The Cavaliers’ team dynamic has served as an x-factor on and off the field during their strong start to the 2024 campaign.
“Preseason we did a lot of team bonding,” Mendez-Trendler said. “We made pasta at [Coach] Ole [Keusgen]’s house, which was really fun … We did paintball as well … We love to laugh, but we also push each other to work hard. It’s a great balance.”
According to Mendez-Trendler, Keugsen has inspired the team with a fresh style. A change at the head coach position has contributed to Virginia’s impressive showing on the turf, with Coach Ole Keusgen stepping up to the helm after serving as interim head coach during last year’s playoffs.
“He shows a different kind of leadership, which we all love, and we all can really connect with him really well, which is very important for the student-athlete and coach relationship,” Mendez-Trendler said.
The junior is navigating a rigorous course schedule as a biology major, but she is not alone in the task of balancing field hockey and schoolwork. Keusgen and a solid support system within the team has also helped Mendez-Trendler academically.
While Mendez-Trendler has lofty academic pursuits, she also has big dreams for her international career. She has already played for the United States U21 National Team, winning silver this year at the 2024 Junior Pan American Championships.
That taste of international success left the midfielder hungry for more. Now, she has her sights set on arguably the biggest stage in the sporting world.
“Once I graduate — medical school, PA school, whatever I decide to do career-wise … going to the 2028 [Los Angeles] Olympics would be a really awesome goal for me and something that I’ve been striving for and working for my entire life,” Mendez-Trendler said.
Virginia’s star midfielder knows the Olympics may be even further than a conceivable horizon right now. So in the meantime, she has her sights set on another, more close-approaching goal — an ACC Championship with the Cavaliers.
“ACC, national championship — we’re really striving for that, and that shows every day in practice,” Mendez-Trendler said. “We work with intensity. We have a really high work ethic and we just grind every single day.”
Virginia was the preseason favorite for the conference championship and had a perfect 9-0 to start the year, but will almost certainly slide down the next rankings after their first loss of the season at No. 11 Boston College. That was to no fault of Mendez-Trendler though — she scored both goals in the 3-2 defeat. And the Cavaliers are obviously still contenders with a stellar 10-1 record.
However, the only time Virginia has won an ACC Championship was in 2016, when they took down the rival Tar Heels. Since then, North Carolina has won seven consecutive conference titles. The Cavaliers joined the Tar Heels in the NCAA Final Four last year though, reaching that landmark for the first time since 2019. This Virginia squad seems poised for another run and could very well play spoiler to North Carolina if it continues this current run of thrashing opponents with ease.
The Cavaliers will continue to receive abundant opportunities to prove their mettle against other highly-ranked teams — including a road date at North Carolina Oct. 25. With Mendez-Trendler serving as a holistic leader on and off the field, expect Virginia to tenaciously fight in an everlasting pursuit of championships.
While the Cavaliers may be sitting behind a few teams in the rankings, the mindset for Mendez-Trendler is clear — the key lies within. And ultimately, the only way to earn that ever-elusive national title is simple. Win.
“[We want to] just focus on our game. Focus on what we do,” Mendez-Trendler said. ”Sometimes rankings don’t mean anything. We want to show with our play that we are number one.”
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