Team History
Haverford's field hockey tradition began even before the women in the first fully-coed class arrived on campus in 1980.
One of the college's three original women's sports, field hockey caught hold right away, attracting large turnouts and recording strong competitive results under head coach Penny Hinckley.
The hockey Fords soon tore up their Philadelphia AIAW opponents and began to show success even in the more competitive Middle Atlantic Conference. The mid-'80's were a time of great strength for the program, featuring fine players like Academic All-America goalie and NCAA Postgraduate Scholar Carol Compton '84 and Lydia Martin '85 -- the first woman to win Haverford's Varsity Cup (awarded annually to the best athlete in the college's senior class). The team went 29-8-1 from 1982-84. Haverford field hockey made the MAC playoffs for four straight years from 1988-91 and went 23-6-5 the last two years of that run.
The Fords won the Seven Sisters title in 1990-91 with Emilie Heck '91 and Andrea Trippitelli '93 earning successive MVP honors in the tourney. That era also produced Haverford's first field hockey All-America, Tracy Kyger '93, who made the national select squad's second team in 1992. Becca Morse '94 and Becca Fenander '92 were consistent all-conference and all-region picks.
In 1999, the Fords handed Moravian its worst series defeat in 16 years, picked up their first-ever win at Dickinson and matched their best season-opening mark since 1993. Junior Sarah Lee earned Centennial Conference Player of the Week for her play in a thrilling 3-2, overtime victory over Muhlenberg. Sophomore Kristin McKie defeated Smith with a penalty stroke and junior all-tourney selection Robin Herlands scored in the first half and the second overtime against Mount Holyoke to help Haverford improve its place (6-5-4-3) at Seven Sisters for the fourth straight year.
The field hockey program's rich tradition of academic excellence continued in 2002 as eleven Fords - the most from any NCAA Division III institution - were named to the all-academic squad of the National Field Hockey Coaches Association and Jess Bluebond-Langner '03 was a Rhodes Scholarship nominee.