West Chester Field Hockey Savoring National Championship
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) -- They are still celebrating at West Chester University after the Golden Rams field hockey team won the Division II national championship on Sunday, with a 2-1 victory over UMass-Lowell.
The title comes in West Chester head coach Amy Cohen's first year at the helm of the program.
"It's starting to sink in," she told KYW Newsradio today. "I think with all the phone calls and text messages I've gotten since yesterday at about 4pm, it's starting to come true that it's not a dream -- it actually did happen. So, just starting to take it in a little bit," she said.
In order to even have the chance to play for the title, West Chester had to pull off a huge upset in the national semifinals, defeating previously undefeated Bloomsburg, 3-2, in penalty strokes. West Chester had lost both regular-season matchups to the Huskies by a combined score of 12-2.
Cohen (center of photo) says they were concerned about being out of gas for the title game after such an emotional upset to get there.
"We were hoping that we could come out early and get a few goals in, which we did. Because after playing 100 minutes in a freezing cold day on Friday, it started to snow in the second overtime period," Cohen recalls, "and our best player played 100 minutes. Our second best player played 98 minutes. We were really concerned we weren't going to have enough gas in the tank. But we definitely were able to pull it out."
Seniors Nicole Fiorilla (at right in photo) and Brynn Adams (at left) had the goals in Sunday's win.
It's the fourth NCAA team title in West Chester athletics history.
Reported by Matt Leon, KYW Newsradio 1060
