Photo courtesy of the University of Virginia

Chantel Jones was an second-team All-ACC goalie for UVa in 2007.

As Virginia marched up and down the field Saturday against Miami, there was more than one occasion when the Cavaliers could have used a 50-yard field goal.

Unfortunately for them, there is only one UVa kicker known to have kicked a 50-yarder this season -- and she was sitting in the stands.

Fact is, Chantel Jones isn't even in school.

Jones, previously the starting goalie for the Virginia women's soccer team, is taking a year off to train with the Under-20 United States national team.

That program doesn't get under way until next week, so Jones, who has spent the fall in Charlottesville, needed to keep herself occupied.

"I asked our academic coordinator if she knew if there were any jobs available around athletics," Jones said. "She said they might have a job in the football office."

The UVa football office employs a number of students, and it wasn't long before Jones' fellow workers learned that she played soccer.

"We were talking in the office and I had mentioned that I thought I could kick a 60-yard field goal," said Jones, a junior from Clover Hill High School in Chesterfield County. "There was one person who thought I could do it. Everybody else was 'no way.'"

The challenge was on.

UVa's football office is in the McCue Center, adjacent to the Cavalier practice fields. Jones started at 20 yards and made that. She was good on her first try from 30 yards, then 40.

She didn't miss until her first attempt from 50 yards, but her second try was perfect.

There's a YouTube video to prove it, with an intro that reads, "Chantel Jones Attempt at History."

Jones' supporters claim it was the longest field goal by a female, but, of course, there was no rush. Earlier this year, Sarah Oliver kicked a 44-yard field goal for the California Quake in the Women's Football League.

Remarkably, Jones says she had never kicked a football until this October.

"The day before [the challenge], I kicked it maybe three times in soccer practice just to see what it was like," she said. "I had thrown a football before. I never thought that I could kick it further."

Jones has been a football fan, specifically for the New York Giants, since she was a toddler. She remembers wearing a helmet and other Giants' paraphernalia as she would run around her family's yard.

"I never really played football," she said. "I wish I would have gone out for the team in high school because I think I would have made it. In high school, football and soccer are at two different times."

As of Wednesday afternoon, Jones' video had received more than 1,375 views and left her as something of a cult hero.

"Oh, gosh," she said. "I was at the football game two weeks ago and some random guy came up to me and said, 'Great field-goal kicking.' I had no idea who he was."

She also got a comment from UVa head coach Al Groh.

"He said, 'I saw your YouTube video; that was pretty impressive,'" she said.

In an aside following one of his recent news conferences, Groh said his first thought was to check Jones' eligibility.

She says she has three years remaining. Jones was redshirted as a freshman in 2006, started from the opening game in 2007, then received an NCAA waiver this year that will allow her to spread four seasons of eligibility over six years.

"You never know what's going to happen," she said, "but I'd love to give [football] a try."

UVa's place-kicker for most of the season has been Yannick Reyering, a first-team All-ACC selection for the UVa men's soccer team before his eligibility expired.

Jones was a second-team All-ACC choice in 2007, when she posted 13 shutouts.

Unlike Jones, Reyering played an attacking position in college. His job was to kick the ball under the crossbar.

"I'd probably have an advantage because the whole purpose of doing a goal kick is to get it up and over everyone," Jones said.

At this point, any discussion of Jones kicking for the UVa football team is purely hypothetical. Reyering never kicked for UVa while he was playing soccer and, like men's soccer, women's college soccer is played in the fall.

"Yannick's a really good kicker," Jones said. "He just kind of had a rough patch last weekend. If they have trouble, they have good back-ups. I don't think they'd ever need me."

Besides, there's one other issue. She's never tried to kick while wearing a helmet and pads.

"That could make a difference," she said. "There's a helmet lying around and I put it on. I could barely hold my head up.

"But, still, I'd love to do it. If they wanted me to do it and soccer would allow me to do it, I'd try it in a heartbeat."