Team History
Women's basketball was among the first three sports the college adopted when it went "fully-coed" in 1980-81. The founding coach was Julie Soreiro, who moved on to head coaching positions at Philadelphia U. and Penn before her current assignment at Colorado College.
The program grew throughout the 1980's under such mentors as eventual U.S. Lacrosse coach Sue Stahl, and had many fine players, though lacking a consistent scorer.
That description was finally appropriated by Amy Taylor '92, who became Haverford's first 1,000-point scorer. Taylor was a two-time all-Middle Atlantic Conference performer and Haverford captain, a three-time basketball MVP, and the 1992 winner of the Varsity Cup, Haverford's highest athletic award. In her junior season, the program reached .500 for the first time under new head coach Dick Wiseman.
Besides Taylor '92, other Fords who found success in life after basketball include Beth Chittick '91, who battled back to play with torn ACLs in both knees to play and is now a veterinarian, and all-Centennial selections Koren Miller '95, Claudette Pirwitz '96, and Colleen Leonard '98. Only injuries kept Claudette and Colleen from reaching the 1,000-point mark, and very few teams could contain these talented and dedicated players.
Under the guidance of head coach Jim Osborne, Erin McCartney '03 and Jamie Rosenberger '03 made major contributions to the program and helped the Fords to make great strides within the Centennial Conference. McCartney finished her career with top five rankings in a number of statistical categories, including games played, points, field goals made, free throws made and rebounds, while Rosenberger ranks fourth all-time in steals and sixth in rebounds.