Jones utilized early struggle as motivation for her career

How does a girl once advised to pursue a different sport land a scholarship from one of the nation’s top college soccer programs and end her career with more shutouts than anyone else in NCAA history?

Just ask Chantel Jones. The improbable story is hers to tell.

“If you had told me I’d be at this point right now, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Jones said back in November, less than a week before she made two saves in Virginia’s NCAA tournament victory over Long Island and etched her name into the NCAA record book with her 45th career shutout.

“I expected to do great things here, but I didn’t expect to come this far.”

Born on Long Island, N.Y., Jones spent her teenage years in Chesterfield County. She played high school soccer at Clover Hill and club soccer for the Richmond Strikers, where she landed after the coach of her former team – even now, Jones won’t name him – pointedly advised her that soccer wasn’t a good fit for her skill set.

Jones, who remembers being “tall and a little clumsy” as a youngster, allowed herself a satisfied laugh as she contemplated the irony of that painful moment.

“I haven’t seen him since, but I’d like to thank him. I probably never would’ve gotten this far without that motivation,” she said.

Jones’ path to soccer stardom has certainly been less than typical.

Before she earned berths on the U-16 and U-17 national teams, Jones was “just a regular person” and “nobody knew who I was.”

The international experience put Jones on the radar of college coaches and she eventually set her sights on three schools: Virginia, Virginia Tech and North Carolina.

She loved the Charlottesville campus and U.Va.’s academics, but there was one problem: the Cavaliers didn’t need a goalkeeper – at least not right away. With Christina deVries returning for her senior season in 2006, Virginia women’s soccer coach Steve Swanson informed Jones he’d love to have her in the program but only if she’d agree to redshirt.

“I probably could’ve gone anywhere else and played right away,” Jones said, “but I knew Virginia was the right fit for me.”

Jones enrolled at U.Va. in August 2006 and spent her first semester getting acclimated to the school’s rigorous academics while training with the soccer team and serving as an understudy to deVries.

It wasn’t the easiest time of her life.

“I was thinking, ‘This is terrible, not getting to play,’” Jones recalled. “But it was probably the best decision I’ve ever made. I learned so much from watching.”

Now 23, Jones is only too happy to counsel younger teammates who are dealing with the same disappointments and frustrations she experienced during her first redshirt season.

First?

Told you Jones’ road was long and winding.

Having inherited the starting job from deVries in 2007, Jones got an opportunity she couldn’t pass up just a year later when she made the U.S. team for the U-20 World Cup.

She sat out the fall semester while training and playing with the national team in Chile, then returned to U.Va. and was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.

Over the last three seasons, Jones worked steadily toward the anthropology degree she earned last May and blossomed into one of the nation’s top collegiate goalkeepers while also taking on an increasing leadership role within the Virginia program.

“She’s definitely one of the best goalies -- if not the best -- in the history of the program,” Swanson told Virginiasports.com.

“But I think what we’re all proud of most is how much she’s developed in her time here and how much she’s developed off the field as well. Those are things that college hopefully does for you -- not just college athletics, but college in general -- and I think we’ve seen that with her.”

As she closed in on the NCAA record late in the 2011 regular season, Jones was still the same humble young woman she’d been when she first arrived in Charlottesville as an 18-year-old.

She attributes most of her on-field accomplishments to Virginia’s stifling defense, which typically allows only a handful of shots per game, and credits her parents with helping her stay grounded through all the highs and lows.

“I’m lucky to have had the path I’ve had,” Jones said. “I don’t take success for granted. I know there are a ton of people who work just as hard as I do; they just haven’t gotten their shot.”