The University of Delaware field hockey team had a banner season in 2004, finishing with a record of 15-7 despite an ambitious schedule, winning the first Colonial Athletic Association championship ever by a Fightin’ Blue Hens team in any sport and earning a berth in the NCAA Division I tournament.

“The players put in a lot of hard work and it paid off,” UD Head Coach Carol Miller, a 1982 UD graduate who was a three-time field hockey All-American, says.

Miller, who as a player led the Hens to a second- place finish in the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championship tournament in 1978 and a third-place finish in 1980, says the players were still excited about the CAA title and NCAA tournament appearance months later.

Miller, who was head coach at Millersville University for eight seasons before accepting the head coaching job at UD in 1993, says she could envision the championship well before it happened.

“I always knew the program was heading in the right direction,” she says, citing three key factors: the move from the America East Conference to the CAA, the completion of an artificial turf field at Rullo Stadium and the hiring of former Virginia Commonwealth University head coach Dawn Hill as an assistant.

“The move to the CAA was a great move for the field hockey program at UD,” Miller says. “We jumped into what is generally regarded as the third best, or sometimes second best, field hockey conference in the country, behind only the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 10.”

With the move, recruiting “fell right into place,” she says, citing as one of the premier recruit classes those seniors on the 2004 championship team.

“We had four remarkable seniors that year,” Miller says, noting the contributions of four-year starters Erica LaBar, Leah Geib, Jessi Balmer and Lauren Carr.

LaBar was a first team All-CAA selection and, with Geib, participated in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) North-South All-Star Game at Wake Forest University. LaBar consistently was “extremely supportive of the athletes, of the University, of the program and of the coaching staff,” Miller says.

Geib was a second team NFHCA All-American and was the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year for field hockey two years in row. “Her senior year was a peak season, and she was very deserving of the honors she received,” Miller says.

Balmer was a second team All-CAA selection and was named to the conference All-Tournament team, as was Carr, who Miller says had a “remarkable performance on the field, and worked hard off the field to keep the team together.”

“Those players came in as freshmen and started,” Miller says. “Because of that, they were comfortable enough in their positions, and confident enough, to assist with leadership.”

That leadership was vital to a championship effort, Miller says, adding that “it always has been a goal of ours to get to the conference championship, and to win the conference championship.”

Prior to the start of the season, she says, “there was almost a silent confidence the team had.”

The 2005 team had big shoes to fill with the loss of the seniors and with midfielder Katie Evans on loan to the U.S. national junior team during the early part of the season, and struggled to an 8-11 record. But the future looks bright.

Returning for the 2006 season will be Evans, Amanda Warrington, who had nine goals and was named the 2004 CAA Defensive Player of the Year and the CAA tournament’s most outstanding player, and goalkeeper Megan Allen, who during the championship run led the conference in shutouts and who allowed just 23 goals that entire regular season.

Miller says she is very excited about her ability to recruit top players to UD, something that has been bolstered by the Hens’ participation as a host for the U.S. Field Hockey Association Futures Program, the artificial surface at Rullo Stadium and the jump to the CAA.

“UD is one of the easiest places to recruit,” Miller says. “Academically, it is an incredible University. It is centrally located and a very attractive campus. It is an easy school for me to sell, particularly as a former player who is very proud of her alma mater.

“Through the Futures Program, we get to see all the players in the region,” Miller says. “Having the players know that we have stepped up to the CAA, and that we consistently compete against top 10 schools, UD is very attractive to them. And, what Fred and Madeleine Rullo have done for the program through the construction of Rullo Stadium continues to reverberate.

“Every day I step on that turf field, I am still in wonder,” Miller says. “It is something I never take for granted. It is a premium facility in the state and in the region.”

Of the difficult schedule the Hens play year in and year out, Miller says that is by design. “I don’t ever want to go into a game and have our players shell shocked by the quality of the opponent,” she says. “They need to know what a University of North Carolina is like.

“We are teaching life lessons, and it is important that players are able to evaluate themselves and to evaluate the team on a consistent basis,” Miller says, and “you do that by playing top teams.”

Miller says she learned that philosophy from her own college coach, Mary Ann Hitchens, who is now UD’s senior associate director of athletics. Above all, the Hens are blessed with an exceptionally talented coaching staff with the addition of Hill, who, Miller says, “has meant a great deal to the program.”

Hill brought to UD a great deal of insight about the CAA, having been head coach at Virginia Commonwealth. She also brought firsthand knowledge of how to win as an Old Dominion graduate who had a part in six national championships.

Miller credits the 2003 NCAA Division I-AA football championship with helping her team “understand what goes into success.”

“The football championship was an inspiration,” she says. “It was nice to be around that winning attitude. We learned from their success, and from their work ethic.”

Miller is pleased that the philosophy of the University allows scholar-athletes to excel in the classroom and on the playing field. “All of us take a lot of pride in the students’ accomplishments in both areas,” she says.