Century - The Pennsylvania Gazette
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Century As the University celebrates 100 years
Club
of women’s sports, a handful of
prominent former student-athletes
recall their athletic triumphs and
hurdles—and the paths they both
followed and paved. By Dave Zeitlin
30 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jul | Aug 2021
Captains of Penn’s women’s teams in 1940
show off their uniforms and equipment.
N
ot long after the Penn men’s bas- forgotten,” declares a page from the Uni- Few records exist from that 1921–22
ketball team captured the 1920 versity’s 1922 women’s yearbook. “For season—the women’s basketball team’s
national championship, members who would imagine last year that we first of intercollegiate competition—
of the University’s newly formed would be able to invite teams to come but the yearbook does boast of fi ve
women’s team were enjoying a dif- play us, as we did George Washington, victories, including its “big game” over
ferent kind of hoops delight. Adelphi, and Pittsburgh? The first fine the University of Pittsburgh. “Basket-
“The thrill of seeing our first printed exaltation that we felt when we first saw ball is not all,” the yearbook continued.
basketball schedule still lingers—the those ‘Penn beat Pitt’ tags and knew they “Hiking, fencing, swimming—all our
sight of the Penn–Pitt game is not yet referred to us, still is with us.” sports are flourishing.”
Photograph courtesy Penn Archives Jul | Aug 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 31
The women’s basketball team played six games
in 1938, including two away from home in which
teas were “held for the Pennsylvania women
after the game.”
The groundwork for these achieve- competition to intramural activity. And and joining Ivy League competition
ments had been laid just one year ear- once it returned to intercollegiate play while records and statistics were main-
lier—and about 40 years after women after about a decade, games were local tained and preserved. But it took even
began to earn degrees from the Univer- and the stakes seemingly small. In the longer for many women to be properly
sity—with the foundation of the Wom- campus history series book University of recognized for their athletic skills.
en’s Athletic Association. Led by physical Pennsylvania, a photo of the 1938 wom- To paint a picture of some of these strug-
education instructor Margaret Majer en’s basketball team accompanies a pas- gles and triumphs, we’ve spotlighted a
(who left Penn in 1924 to marry Olympic sage describing its season as four home handful of the University’s most promi-
gold medalist John Kelly and whose fu- games and two away games, including a nent female athletes over the past half-
ture children would include Olympic quote from the 1939 women’s yearbook century, spanning several different de-
rower Jack Kelly C’50 and the actress that explains “the inconvenience of out- cades and sports, all of whom have pushed
their programs forward—beginning with
a “double All-American” who arrived on
campus at a transformational time.
Olympic Ambitions
“The word may not yet have gone forth
from Weightman Hall, but the Penn ath-
lete who received the highest national
recognition last year is a woman.”
So reads the opening paragraph of a
feature story in the Gazette’s December
1972 issue titled “Meet Penn’s Double
All-American.”
After describing some of Julie Staver
CW’74 V’82’s feats in field hockey and la-
crosse, the author Susie Adams CW’72
continues, with more than a hint of be-
mused bitterness: “Why are her achieve-
ments secret? Because, first of all, being
a woman athlete at Penn is like being a
Grace Kelly), the association paved the of-town games was more than compen- teetotaler at a cocktail party; it’s unusual,
way for the creation of several women’s sated by the graciousness of the oppo- gauche, but tolerable if kept quiet. It isn’t
teams and funding for new facilities. nent-hostesses who held teas for the just that Penn alumni haven’t heard of
A century later, the University’s Divi- Pennsylvania women after the game.” Julie; unless they play on teams with her
sion of Recreation and Intercollegiate Over the next few decades, women or sit beside her in a Russian lit course,
Athletics is honoring the 100th anniver- continued to fight for an athletic perch. even Penn students draw a blank when
sary of the Women’s Athletic Association Top athletes like Penn Athletics Hall of you mention the star in their midst.”
and the official start of women’s athletics Famers Cynthia Johnson Crowley CW’52 An All-American in field hockey (1973)
at Penn. The celebration will include old (softball/basketball/badminton) and and lacrosse (1973, 1974) who played on
photos, interviews, and video montages Penny Teaf Goulding CW’65 GEd’65 numerous US national field hockey and
at pennathletics.com, as well as special- (field hockey/softball/basketball/la- lacrosse teams throughout the 1970s and
ly made patches on the uniforms of crosse/badminton) played for multiple ’80s, Staver’s place in Penn Athletics lore
Penn’s 16 varsity women’s teams—some Penn teams, a stark contrast to the high- is now secure. The Julie Staver Award,
of which have risen to championship- ly specialized nature of sports today. which Penn presents annually to the
level prominence. It wasn’t until the 1970s—when Title outstanding athlete who competes in
But it hasn’t been an easy road to get IX of the federal Education Amend- both of her sports, has ensured that.
there, and title aspirations haven’t always ments of 1972 prohibited sex-based dis- But Staver, now a veterinarian in Read-
been possible. About five years after its crimination—that women’s sports began ing, Pennsylvania, doesn’t sugarcoat
founding, the Women’s Athletic Associa- to more closely resemble the men’s what her athletic experiences were like
tion shifted its focus from intercollegiate game, with teams earning varsity status at the time. “I came to Penn when wom-
32 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jul | Aug 2021 Photograph courtesy Penn Archives
Julie Staver CW’74 V’82, left, and Alicia McConnell
C’85 dominated their primary sports—field hockey
and squash, respectively—and also lacrosse even
though neither had played it before getting to Penn.
made a huge difference,” bringing better Even if there wasn’t always much fan-
access to trainers, physical therapists, fare, other women followed Daniel and
and full-time coaches. At Penn, Staver Staver to the Olympics, including fencer
played under Ann Sage, a pioneering Mary O’Neill C’86 and a slew of rowers
head coach at Penn who helped build from Anita DeFrantz L’77 to Susan Fran-
both the field hockey and lacrosse pro- cia C’04 G’04 [“Gold, Again,” Sep|Oct
grams, and then spent a couple of years 2012] to Regina Salmons C’18, who has
as her assistant after graduation. been tapped to join Team USA this sum-
Staver also continued to play on the mer in Tokyo.
US national field hockey team after “There are always battles to be fought,”
graduating (picking that over lacrosse Staver says. “But it’s awesome to be a
because she couldn’t handle traveling part of that history.”
for both) and even after starting at Penn’s
School of Veterinary Medicine in 1978.
She initially planned to hang up her
cleats after the 1980 Summer Olympics,
the first in which women’s field hockey
was a sport. But after the US boycotted
the Games, which she notes was “devas-
en’s athletics wasn’t very well support- tating for lots of people,” she decided to
ed,” she says. Whether that meant shar- hang on for four more years, through her
ing uniforms, buying her own equip- vet school graduation and the beginning
ment, or playing games on Hill Field, of her career as a veterinarian.
“where sometimes you had to fight with Staver ended up serving as cocaptain of
the intramural guys to get off the field the US field hockey team at the 1984
and out of the way,” it was a battle to Olympics in Los Angeles, helping the
simply get through a full (all-local, non- Americans capture the bronze medal
Ivy) schedule, let alone win games. thanks to a unique ending. After finishing
Of course, this wasn’t a problem exclu- the round-robin tournament tied with
sive to Penn. Growing up in rural central Australia for third place in points and
Pennsylvania, Staver played field hockey goal differential, the US team was called
and basketball at Lower Dauphin High back out onto the field—from the stands, Best of the Best
School because those were the only two where the players had been wearing street Alicia McConnell C’85 enjoyed her own
sports offered for girls. It wasn’t until ar- clothes—to face Australia in a tie-breaking Olympic experiences, having worked as
riving at Penn—a school she chose because shootout, which the US won. “We thought the director of training sites and com-
she wanted to be in a city—that she we were out of it,” Staver says. munity partnerships for the US Olympic
learned how to play lacrosse. “I kind of had Staver isn’t the only Penn athlete to Committee in Colorado. And she almost
a knack for it,” says Staver, who quickly got medal at the Olympics, which has a rich certainly would have reached the highest
called in to play for the US national team. Olympic tradition for both men and wom- mountaintop as a competitor too … if
Ivy League competition for field hock- en [“Penn in the Olympics,” Jul|Aug 2012]. only squash were an Olympic sport.
ey and women’s lacrosse didn’t begin One of her classmates, swimmer Elie Dan- Nevertheless, McConnell is considered
until 1979–80 (the first Ivy League cham- iel CW’74, won gold, silver, and bronze at one of the greatest American squash
pionships in women’s sports were held the 1968 Olympics before arriving at players of all time, dominating the rack-
before that, beginning with rowing in Penn—and then bronze in 1972. (A Gazette et sport through the 1980s—before, dur-
1974) but Staver still detected changes feature, from the May 1973 issue, paints a ing, and after her time at Penn.
from the time she arrived at Penn until picture of another superstar athlete over- “Around Weightman Hall, she has been
she left. As a senior, she got the chance looked. “No school even approached me,” called ‘the kind of player Penn gets once
to take on future Ivy League rival Princ- Daniel told the Gazette about her lack of every 10 years,’ although Ann D. Wetzel,
eton for the first time, and to play games recruitment. “I was a gold medal winner. the women’s squash coach, considers it
inside Franklin Field, which “was a big Football players, they get wined and more like once in a lifetime,” reads a line
deal for us.” She also notes that “Title IX dined, and they’re a dime a dozen.”) from an old Gazette article, which also
Photographs courtesy Penn Athletics Jul | Aug 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 33
touted her ability to beat most men on joining the US national lacrosse team on wrapping up a 20-year run with the US the court, generally to their confusion. a UK tour. “We’re not talking a lot of Olympic Committee, which followed a “Some guys think that it invalidates them money—maybe $500 here and there,” stint in the 1990s teaching squash at the as an athlete to have a woman better than she says. But it helped pay her tuition, club where she first learned the game, they are,” McConnell told the Gazette which she couldn’t otherwise afford. the Heights Casino in Brooklyn. while she was a Penn student. “But it Even still, she needed a last-minute stu- She’s promoted squash everywhere she’s doesn’t at all. They’re good the way they dent loan to graduate on time. “It’s dif- been, and while the sport is still not lucra- are, but I just happen to be better.” ferent today,” she says, bemoaning her tive, she’s pleased to see American stars Making her way in a man’s world was struggles despite the attention she have a better chance at making a living at a theme for McConnell. Growing up in brought the University as the top squash it than she did. She also likes—albeit with Brooklyn Heights, she recalls “going into player in the country. “I think female a pang of jealousy—that University City the backdoors of men’s clubs” to play athletes now feel more empowered.” has become a hub for American squash tennis and, when it rained, going inside Money continued to be an issue for Mc- with a new US center opening at Drexel to try out squash. “I just got hooked on Connell after she graduated and went and the Penn Squash Center recently un- squash,” McConnell recalls. “I could hit overseas, where there were more oppor- dergoing $20 million renovations. hundreds of balls in a row against the tunities to find training partners and “It would’ve been fun to have a shot play- wall. Somehow my coaches convinced compete in tournaments. To make ends ing full time now,” admits McConnell, who me that that was fun.” Crushing the ball, meet, she’d crash with friends, drive rath- serves on the Penn squash advisory board, finding the right angles, wrong-footing er than fly when possible, and buy her heads Penn Alumni’s regional club in Ire- her opponents—she loved it all. own equipment. She rose to No. 14 in the land, and has mentored Penn athletes. A two-time national junior squash world rankings, winning easily and often, “But I just love seeing the growth of champion while in high school, McCon- but her travel expenses usually negated women’s sports,” she adds. “It’s a confi- nell decided to come to University City her earnings (about $18,000 in her best dence booster for women to really ap- after playing in a tournament at Penn’s year, as she recalls). And without trainers preciate what your body can do, what Ringe Courts, which, she notes, “had the and coaches to support her, the physical your mind can do. What’s most important best squash setup at the time.” Like demands took a toll—so she quit the sport is the friends you make, the life experi- Staver a decade earlier, McConnell also when she was still at the top of her game. ences you have, and the skills you learn gravitated to lacrosse when she got to “Alicia McConnell used to dream of be- through the sport. You don’t realize that campus. Though she had never played ing the Billie Jean King of women’s when you’re playing—at least I didn’t.” the sport before, she not only made the squash and turning the sport into a mul- Quakers’ varsity squad under Anne Sage timillion-dollar enterprise,” opens an il- Never Stop Running but also rose to the US national team. luminating article in the February 1, 1989, (and Jumping) She tried a little field hockey too, for a edition of the New York Times. “Now the Like Staver, McConnell, and other star semester. “I just loved sports,” McCon- seven-time national champion is quitting athletes who came before her, Ruthlyn nell says. “If somebody gave me a chance the game, disillusioned, disheartened, Greenfield Webster Nu’92 had an op- to play, I was like, ‘OK. Why not?’” and, for the most part, broke.” The article portunity to compete at the highest But squash was her No. 1 sport, and ends with a quote from McConnell, who level after graduating. But hampered by she was No. 1 in squash. She won both said: “It didn’t seem fair to me that here a hamstring injury and ready to move the intercollegiate and national singles I was, number one, and still buying my on to a career in nursing, she turned championships as a member of Penn’s own skirts. Over in Australia, everything down an invitation to jump at the 1992 varsity squash team, bringing home in- is taken care of. … I feel used by squash. US Olympic Trials for track and field. dividual titles for the Quakers in 1982, Through squash, I lost my whole identity.” “I decided I was done,” says Greenfield 1983, and 1984. (Two other Penn wom- McConnell is more comfortable in her Webster, who immediately began work- en’s squash players would later wear the own skin these days. Long after strug- ing as a nurse at NYU Langone, where crown of national singles champion— gling with her self-confidence at Penn she’s remained for the last 29 years. “I Jessica DiMauro C’99 G’00 in 1996 and while “becoming more aware of my said to myself, I’ve done everything I Reeham Salah EAS’19 in 2018.) McCon- sexuality,” and being “too afraid” to fully can. I’m leaving on top of everything. Ivy nell would have gone for the clean sweep come out to all her teammates, she now champion. School record holder. Captain as a senior but lost her amateur status lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her wife of my team. I’m good.” when she accepted prize money playing and their English bulldog and pug. She A four-time Heptagonal Games cham- in squash tournaments in Europe after moved there about three years ago after pion in the triple jump who graduated 34 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jul | Aug 2021
Ruthlyn Greenfield Webster Nu’92 is a national,
regional, and world champion in Masters track
and field.
with program records in that event for of the top runners in Penn history—and
both indoor and outdoor track and field, arguably one of the best women athletes
Greenfield Webster certainly left behind the University has ever seen in 100 years.
a strong legacy at her alma mater. The school record holder in the 800 me-
But, as it turned out, she wasn’t done. ters and the 1,500 meters and a two-time
About 15 years after graduating, she national runner-up in the 800, Akins
heard about Masters track and field for helped bring the women’s track and field
athletes over 35 years old. Intrigued, she program to new heights with several
started hopping, skipping, and jumping overall team wins at the Heptagonal
in her Yonkers, New York, backyard— Championships and its first-ever distance
and, from there, to Italy, Finland, France, medley relay championship at Penn Re-
Brazil, and other countries where the lays [“Penn Relays at 125,” Jul|Aug 2019].
biggest Masters events were held. And like Greenfield Webster, Akins is
Reinvigorated by an opportunity that Black. Last summer she wrote about race
wasn’t always available to women of a and an experience she had with racism
previous era, she added more medals to for Runner’s World (which was later re-
her collection, earning the trifecta she published by Penn Nursing magazine).
set out for as a national champion, re- Now a professional runner, Akins has her
gional champion, and world champion. sights set on the Olympics. “I absolutely
But it didn’t come easy. adore Nia,” Greenfield Webster says. “She
At the 2013 World Masters Athletic has a special place in my heart.”
Championships in Brazil, she won gold in Getting the opportunity to see Akins—
the women’s triple jump for her age group or any other Penn alum—in the Olym-
(40–44), despite competing with a menis- support her in her Masters endeavors. pics would be quite the thrill for Green-
cus tear in her right knee. At the 2019 “It’s a lifelong thing for me.” field Webster, who has no plans to stop
North, Central America and Caribbean She also has a lifelong connection to traveling the world to run and jump
Region of World Masters Athletic Cham- her alma mater, feeling a particular af- herself. COVID-19, of course, enforced a
pionships in Canada, she brought home finity for Franklin Field, where she’s pause as she dealt with the far more se-
triple jump gold in the next age bracket competed at the Penn Relays from high rious implications of a once-in-a-centu-
(45–49)—after sustaining a left foot plan- school events to 40-and-older Masters ry global pandemic. “For the first time
tar fasciitis injury that knocked her out of relays. “I talk about Penn like you think in my career,” the New York nurse says,
the 100-meter and 200-meter dash events, I owned the place,” she says. She cur- “this was something that actually scared
and other Team USA sprint relays. rently serves on the Penn track alumni me.” She also devoted extra time to sup-
“I’m crazy,” she laughs. “You would board, conducts Penn Alumni inter- porting and comforting her two daugh-
think it would make me stop, right? But, views, and was named the 2018 Friar of ters, including one who missed her
no. It really sort of motivates me more.” the Year. A painting of her jumping graduation, prom, and other teenage
It’s gotten to the point, she says, where adorns the lobby wall inside Penn Nurs- rites of passage as a 2020 Yonkers High
she actually gets worried when she’s not ing’s Claire M. Fagin Hall, she says. “Can School graduate.
hurt. “I’m so used to competing with I tell you how amazing that feels to me?” But she managed to still train the entire
injuries that it doesn’t really faze me like Greenfield Webster is particularly time, and after turning 50 this year, is
it probably should—because I’ve been proud of her nursing degree. When she primed to dominate another age group
doing it since college.” first got to Penn, she recalls hearing that (50–54). How long can she keep going
She credits her Penn coaches, Betty many nursing students drop out of the from there? “The way these knees are act-
Costanza and Tony Tenisci, for helping track program because it’s too time- ing up, I don’t know if I’m gonna make it
her push through a hamstring injury to consuming to balance both. “For me,” to 90,” she says. “But I’m gonna try.”
successfully defend her Heps/Ivy League she says, “it was like, Challenge accept-
triple jump title and develop her raw ed.” She later learned that she was the Palestra Lifer
talent. Sometimes, that included tough first Penn track and field record holder Although basketball has the deepest roots
love and a little bit of yelling, but “I love to graduate from the nursing school. of any of the Penn women’s athletic pro-
those two like they gave birth to me,” But she wouldn’t be the last. Nia Akins grams, it wasn’t until the turn of the mil-
Greenfield Webster says, noting they still Nu’20 GNu’20 recently graduated as one lennium that it reached the next level.
Photographs courtesy Penn Athletics Jul | Aug 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 35
Diana Caramanico W’01 LPS’11 still holds the
Penn, Big 5, and Ivy League scoring records.
And that was because of Diana Cara- 2003, and actually played Texas Tech in an
manico W’01 LPS’11. exhibition just a few months after the
The only men’s or women’s player in NCAA tournament. Even more surprising,
Penn basketball history to score more Texas Tech fans who made the trip to
than 2,000 career points, she currently France recognized her (despite the lack of
holds the Penn, Big 5, and Ivy League any programs or rosters in the arena) and
records for most career points with began a “Let’s Go Penn!” chant. “I almost
2,415. She also holds Penn records for started crying right there on the court,”
career rebounds (1,207), and steals (201), says Caramanico, who was missing home
among other all-time marks, and was at the time. “It was just what I needed.”
named the Ivy League Player of the Year Almost 20 years since her basketball
three straight seasons. career ended, Caramanico is back home
And she capped it all off in 2001 by and “living the dream,” having built a life
leading the Quakers to their first-ever Ivy in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, with her hus-
championship and NCAA tournament band Geoff Owens C’01, a former men’s
berth, completing a stunning turnaround basketball center she met in college, and
from when she arrived on campus with their two athletic children, ages 12 and 9.
nine other freshmen recruits. Not surpris- And she’s far more recognizable at the
ingly, the young and inexperienced team In a narrow come-from-behind win over Palestra, where she’s a regular visitor,
was picked to finish dead last in the Ivies. Yale, Greenberg was ejected for arguing than in any French gym. “That’s like my
“But we had all come from winning pro- with the refs. In another nail-biter, Car- second home,” she says. “Our kids have
grams,” Caramanico says. “No one told us amanico recalls former men’s basketball known for years you don’t wear orange
we were supposed to lose.” star Mike Jordan C’00 “herding hun- [Princeton colors] at the Palestra, and you
In her freshman year, the Quakers fin- dreds of shrieking kids down under the try to avoid orange in general.”
ished a respectable 13–13 overall and 8–6 basket to bother” a Dartmouth player She also believes her Penn education
in the Ivy League, good enough to come shooting potentially game-winning free helped her navigate a few career changes,
in fourth place. The next season, they throws with no time left on the clock. from playing basketball professionally
finished third. As a junior in 1999–2000, She missed one, allowing Penn to run and trying out for the WNBA ... to working
Caramanico and the Quakers began to away with the win in overtime. in international sales for AND1 … to start-
take off, winning 18 total games under The Quakers ended up clinching the Ivy ing a business on mental toughness train-
the leadership of first-year head coach title with a few games left in the season ing for athletes … to now teaching at her
Kelly Greenberg, who had replaced Julie but saw their long-awaited celebration alma mater, Germantown Academy.
Soriero and implemented an up-tempo curtailed because Harvard had “hid any- Penn, she notes, “set me up for success
style that suited the 6-foot-2 Caramani- thing we could stand on to cut down the for the rest of my life.” Likewise, Cara-
co’s ability to run the floor. nets,” Caramanico recalls. They made up manico helped set Penn women’s bas-
Heading into her final season with a for it with a home win over rival Prince- ketball up for success, elevating the
smaller group of classmates but still a ton to cap off a perfect Ivy season and roll standard so that Ivy titles became more
strong class that included Erin Ladley into the NCAA tournament with an regular and star players followed the
C’01 (who would join Caramanico in the NCAA-best 21 game winning streak. legacy she carved. Three years after she
1,000-point club), Penn had all the piec- The Quakers flew to Lubbock, Texas, graduated, one of her former teammates
es to make a run. Caramanico remained to take on Texas Tech in front of approx- and fellow Penn Athletics Hall of Famer,
confident even after the team lost five of imately 14,000 hostile fans—a long way Jewel Clark C’04, led the Quakers back
its first six games. What followed was 21 from the “out-of-town” games around to the NCAA tournament. More recently,
straight victories, many of them memo- the Philadelphia area in the 1930s when Alyssa Baron C’14, Sydney Stipanovich
rable for different reasons. tea was served afterwards. They lost, by C’17, Michelle Nwokedi C’18, Eleah Park-
The beginning of the streak included a wide margin, 100–57, but the experi- er C’21, and Kayla Padilla W’23 have
a win over Air Force that was played in ence on the national stage was eye open- grabbed the torch and helped turn Penn
an almost empty Palestra due to a snow- ing and formative for both Caramanico into a perennial Ivy League powerhouse.
storm. About a week later, Caramanico and the Penn program. Yet the University’s marquee program,
scored 42 points against Albany, which Caramanico went on to play profes- in many ways, is the same one that used
remains a program single-game record. sional basketball in France from 2001– to pluck players from other Penn teams
36 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jul | Aug 2021 Photograph courtesy Penn Athletics
Ali DeLuca Cloherty C’10 never lost an Ivy League
game in four seasons and made three trips to the
NCAA final four.
even if they had never before played the but accomplished something perhaps Waxman C’08 (also a two-time National
sport … and now has legitimate nation- even more remarkable by capping off its Goalkeeper of the Year and a recent Penn
al championship aspirations every year. fourth straight sweep of the Ivy League— Athletics Hall of Fame inductee) and
an achievement that would have been Melissa Lehman C’08 (who went on to
New Frontiers unimaginable in previous years and de- keep winning titles as a longtime Penn
Perhaps the best way to chart the growth cades. “When I came here, the Prince- assistant coach). But DeLuca—who still
of women’s sports over the last 100 years is tons and Dartmouths were killing us,” holds the program record for career
through lacrosse—and, more specifically, Brower Corbett told the Gazette in 2007. goals with 148—became the first player
through Ali DeLuca (now Cloherty) C’10. “It was, ‘Can we hang with them for 20 in school history to be a finalist for the
Like Caramanico a decade earlier, De- minutes?’ These girls were not recruited Tewaaraton Award, given annually to
Luca joined a program that did not have by those programs, and they didn’t be- the best lacrosse player in the country.
a championship tradition. But by the lieve they could beat them.”
time she left, Penn had not only ascend- For Penn to move so swiftly from Ivy
ed to the top of the Ivy League but ad- also-ran to Ivy powerhouse—and remain
vanced all the way to the national semi- on that perch to this day with 11 league
finals three times, including one trip to titles since 2007—is something DeLuca
the national championship game. wears like a badge of honor. “When I talk
“I wanted to be a part of the story,” De- to people who know Ivy League athlet-
Luca says. “And every woman on that team ics, they’re stunned,” she says of her
at the time felt the same way. We would spotless 28-0 record against conference
always joke because in 2007 they kept re- foes. “No one does that. It’s incredible.”
ferring to us as this Cinderella story. And Among the former Ivy athletes she talks
we did not think of ourselves like that.” to about it is her husband, former Brown
DeLuca credits Karin Brower Corbett, football player Colin Cloherty. They live
the team’s head coach since 2000, for be- in Silver Spring, Maryland, with their
ing “the foundation of that shift” and in- two toddler sons who are usually hold-
stilling in her players a mindset that “we ing a ball or a stick. (Her two sisters also
were an elite team that deserved to be went to Brown, where they played la-
amongst what people considered the top crosse. “Brown’s a great place but Penn’s
teams in the country.” The Quakers hadn’t obviously better,” she says.) She also likes
qualified for the NCAA tournament since to bring it up with her former team-
1984 or won the Ivy League since 1982 mates, many of whom she’s remained
when they did both in 2007, soaring to a close with. She says she is consistently She didn’t win it but believes a Penn
No. 2 ranking in the country before losing impressed by where they’ve gone in their women’s lacrosse player will hoist that
to Northwestern in the final four. careers since graduating. “We’re sort of trophy eventually. She’s equally confident
Penn got a measure of revenge against used to winning,” says DeLuca, who in Brower Corbett’s ability to navigate the
Northwestern—which won five straight works for National Geographic’s Cre- unique challenges of two straight lost
national titles from 2005 to 2009—by up- ativeWorks. “Being super competitive pandemic seasons and lead the Quakers
setting the Wildcats during the 2008 and strong-willed translates profession- back to the final four—and beyond.
regular season. But that ’08 campaign ally after you’re done with lacrosse.” “There’s no doubt in my mind,” she says,
once again ended with a loss to Northwest- Just the same, some of DeLuca’s fond- “that we’ll win the national champion-
ern, this time in the national title game. est lacrosse memories include dance ship one day.”
So close to reaching the pinnacle of college parties in the locker room before games, From field hockey to track to soccer,
sports, it would be the most difficult defeat and the entire team chanting “Giant softball, squash, and more, other Penn
of DeLuca’s career. “It’s still hard now to Chicken” to get pumped up—and no one programs keep raising the bar too. And as
even take that loss,” she says, although a knowing exactly why. “To an outsider they move into a new century, the dreams
double overtime defeat to Northwestern looking in,” she says, “it was probably will remain tantalizing, the goals never
in the 2009 semifinals, on a “totally lucky” like the weirdest and craziest thing.” greater—a 100-year climb from feeling
goal, was almost as excruciating. Several of DeLuca’s teammates earned like nobody was paying attention to trying
The Quakers fell one win short of four major accolades at Penn, including All- to make sure nobody can look away.
straight trips to the final four in 2010, American nods for goalkeeper Sarah
Photograph courtesy Penn Athletics Jul | Aug 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 37You can also read
