Kevin Tresolini

The News Journal

NORFOLK, Va. – Delaware was the proverbial outsider in the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Tournament’s Final Four.

Before this weekend, the Blue Hens had not gotten this far since 1982, the second year of the tournament's existence.

As if that wasn't enough to overcome, Sunday's championship game pitted the Hens against a perennial Final Four power, the University of North Carolina, making its 17th appearance in the title game.

Still, when the final whistle blew the Blue Hens etched a permanent spot for themselves in the sport’s history.

Delaware won just the school’s second NCAA Division I title, stunning North Carolina 3-2 in the championship game at Old Dominion’s L.R. Hill Sports Complex in front of 1,277.

“It’s a mix of unbelievable but also believable,” said senior Meghan Winesett, who scored Delaware’s second goal. “People [underestimated] us all season. I think beating Duke [in the quarterfinals] and beating Louisville [in the first round] proved people wrong, but I’m proud to beat a six-time champ.”

The Hens demonstrated their prowess with two early goals then responded again when two second-half UNC goals tied it.

Greta Nauck scored the winner with 5:56 left after a nifty steal by Taylor Lister, who lifted her stick high to bat a UNC pass out of the air, dribbled toward the cage and passed to Nauck on her left. The nation’s leading scorer made her 33rd goal decisive.

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No. 8-ranked Delaware (23-2) won its final 19 games after last losing 4-2 at Princeton on Sept. 11. Its other defeat, ironically, had been here, to Old Dominion, 3-2 in overtime Sept. 2.

The national team title was the 10th in UD athletic history, with the previous nine coming in football (six) and women’s lacrosse (three). Only one, however, was in NCAA Division I -- women’s lacrosse in 1983.

When he was hired away from Michigan State in December of 2010, Rolf van de Kerkhof called Delaware a “sleeping giant” in field hockey, even though the Hens had reached just two NCAA tournaments the previous 22 years. The slumber is over. This was Delaware’s fourth straight NCAA appearance.

“It’s a tribute to Rolf,” said senior Maura Zarkoski. “We just trusted the process. I knew he had a vision and we all bought into what he had to say, including the classes before my senior class, and worked our butts off and fought to get here.

“In the grand scheme of things, it’s awesome because my freshman year we lost in the NCAA Tournament to UNC [6-2 in 2013 in the round of 16] and now we beat them to win the national title. I think it’s amazing, the journey’s amazing.”

Van de Kerkhof remembers that 2013 loss to the Tar Heels like it “was yesterday,” he said.

“We have grown, we have matured and we have gotten better every year,” said van de Kerkhof, who became the first male to coach a team to the NCAA Division I field hockey title. “To get with the top teams four years ago, we looked at them as close and I’d like to believe maybe today we did. It’s a statement Delaware is a force to be reckoned with and that we are a top team. We would not be able to do what we did today without the help of classes in the past that put a really good foundation for us right now to enjoy this achievement. It’s great for us as a program, the history we have.”

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The field hockey team had played for the national championship once -- in 1978 -- losing 3-0 to West Chester in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) final. Delaware reached the Final Four in field hockey five times from 1976 through 1982, its first NCAA season, but not since. Mary Ann Hitchens, who coached all those teams, was in the stands Sunday.

“It’s been a real joy to watch this team develop and it’s a tribute to all the players involved,” said Hitchens, sitting beside Janet Smith, who coached those national title lacrosse teams.

Playing in sunny, windy weather with temperatures in the high 40s, Nauck scored in the 10th minute off a back-handed whack just inside the circle out from the left post.

Winesett then made it 2-0 in the 30th minute when Esmee Peet, challenged by a Tar Heel defender, made a pass to her wide-open teammate on her right and Winesett deposited the ball into an open cage.

Lauren Moyer scored for the Tar Heels three minutes into the second half to make it 2-1. After having two goals off corners disallowed, the first on a dangerous shot and the second because it hit a UNC player’s foot, the Tar Heels tied it 2-2 with 7:24 left on Megan DuVernois’ goal.

“When we tied it up I thought we had them on the ropes,” North Carolina coach Karen Shelton said.

It took less than 90 seconds for Delaware to take the lead back and keep it, thanks to Lister’s heroics.

“I felt like I was back in high school playing lacrosse,” Lister, a Lower Dauphin (Pa.) grad, said. “I loved playing lacrosse in high school and I just got it out of the air and dribbled down. It’s just amazing Greta always seems to be in the right place.”

UD players mobbed each other on the turf when time ran out, and they were soon joined by a group of students, family members and friends who rushed out of the stands. A large Delaware crowd included the pep band, cheerleaders, mascot YoUDee and students who arrived on a special bus trip.

Delaware was outshot 16-5 and UNC also took seven penalty corners to just one for Delaware. UD goalie Emmeline Oltmans made seven saves, including several in each half where she ranged well off her line to clear the ball from trouble or block a shot.

The No. 4-ranked Tar Heels (20-6) had won six NCAA field hockey titles, the last in 2009, but have now dropped five championship games since, including last year’s to Syracuse. They had won six games in a row over Delaware, all by at least four goals with the last in 2014, since the Blue Hens won their inaugural meeting 3-1 in 1981.

Delaware reached the final by beating Princeton Friday night 3-2. It advanced to the Final Four by stunning top-seeded Duke 3-2 on the Blue Devils’ home field, forcing overtime with two late goals and then winning on Nauck’s breakaway flick. That followed a first-round win over Louisville 1-0 at Duke.

As for previous national championships, Delaware women’s lacrosse also captured 1981 and 1982 AIAW Division II titles, prior to the NCAA’s takeover of women’s sports. The football team won 1946, 1963, 1971 and 1972 small-college wire-service national titles and the 1979 Division II and 2003 Division I-AA championships through NCAA playoffs.

Now field hockey has joined that revered list.

“You always have to believe in yourself,” said Nauck, the sophomore from Germany, “and that’s what we did until the end . . . That’s the reason why we won today.”

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.