After dominating the draw as a high school player at Hereford, Jessica Karwacki set a goal to break the NCAA Division I career record by the time she graduated from Robert Morris. She only needed two and a half years.
Karwacki won 20 draws in Friday's win over Niagara, giving her 470 and breaking the Division I record of 469 set by Northwestern's Alyssa Leonard last season. She boosted her record to 477 in Sunday's win over St. Bonaventure.
It took Leonard 88 games to reach her milestone. Karwacki needed just 40 to surpass it. She also holds the Division I records for a single-season (216) and a single game (24).
"I really don't have words for how it feels," Karwacki said. "I came into college and it was one of my goals to accomplish the single-season record and I did that. Then my goal was to get the four-year record and I accomplished that in three years which is huge. For me, winning the draw is just something that helps the team get it down on attack. It's a way to have 100 percent possession, so I'm thrilled that I can help my team and accomplish my goal."
In eight games this season, the junior midfielder has won 109 draws – that's 74 percent of the ones the Colonials have won and 48 percent of all the draws taken. She has 30 more draw controls than all nine of her opponents' combined.
Unlike some other players with great success on the draw, the 5-foot-9 Karwacki doesn't do hand and wrist exercises or work much on trying to hone her mechanics. She only focuses on the draw for 10 or 15 minutes of a two-hour practice.
"I look for the same things I've always done," Karwacki said. "I do have a little trick that I can do, but [winning the draw] is about the opponent you're drawing against, it's the stick, it's great hand-eye coordination, it's your quickness and it's the way the ball is positioned in your stick that determines where it goes. All officials are different and if they do put it in a different place I try to work it down to where I like it."
Colonials coach Katy Phillips said Karwacki is simply motivated to win the draw. While she doesn't work on individual skill so much, the team works a lot on how to take the best advantage and move the ball quickly off the possessions she wins.
"When you talk about draw specialists and the draw in the women's game, often you hear people ask, 'What is player X's cheat on the draw?' What makes Jessica so successful is that she really doesn't have a cheat. Her hand-eye coordination and her quickness is what makes her such a dominant person on the draw. She's worked really hard on her extension, she's worked really hard on running through the ball. The scout opportunity is on her is either to just push or to foul and she's worked on moving through the draw so she's out of that circle much faster."
For Karwacki, who plays the whole game and has also contributed eight goals, an assist, 10 ground balls and seven caused turnovers, there is, of course, a new goal.
"Actually, I'm aiming for 800 in my four years and I want to try to hit 1,000 if I can. Eight hundred is a lot, but 1,000 is insane," she said with a laugh. "I guess being realistic, my next goal is to beat my single-game record again. My freshman year it was 152 and then last year it was 216 and this year even if I get 217, I'll beat the single-season record again."
With at least eight more games to get there, that's a good possibility.