Clearly Diane Wright could recruit back in the day...Laurie Decker, Lynn Kotler, Lorie McCollum...three key figures on UConn's 1981 Team that was looking to replace 7 starters from 1980....Few knew a freshman trio would help the Huskies win the first NCAA Field Hockey National Championship....Rose Smith, Wendy Hug and a young lady from Walpole, Mass...Lisa D'Amadio...
Her Freshman Year of 1981, the Final Four was at Old Memorial Stadium on Campus...the Huskies capped a 15-2-3 season with a 13 game unbeaten streak with the National Championship..D'Amadio scoring 9 goals on the year, that included a hat trick in a rout of Boston College....The Huskies then beat Purdue in 2 OT, Old Dominion and UMass, where Lisa scored a goal in the Title Game to take home a trophy.
1982, the Huskies and ODU played twice...and the Lady Monarchs got the win in both...1-0 in the regular season at ODU, then a gut wrenching 3-2 loss in the Championship Game in Philadelphia...D'Amadio joining Kotler and Decker as First Team NFHCA All Americans...1983, the Huskies went thru the season unblemished at 18-0-2...that included another meeting with Old Dominion in the regular season in which the Huskies won 1-0. After beating Nancy Steven's Northwestern Team in the Semi's in Philadelphia, The Lady Monarchs won an OT 3-1 decision to make it back to back titles....D'Amadio again joining Decker, Rose Smith and Wendy Hug as All Americans....
The 84 Team was now led by the D'Amadio, Smith Hug Trio..Each earning All American Status...They also had an incoming freshman who would rewrite the record books in Tracey Fuchs..Smith and Hug First Teamers, D'Amadio a second team selection....And 18-4 season saw the Huskies lose two of three in the regular season in overtime...But the Showdown with the Lady Monarchs went ODU's way in another tight game...2-1...After narrow wins over UMass and UNH, the rivals again from ODU awaited in the Semi's up at Springfield College...again Lady Monarchs 2-1 where they'd beat Iowa to three peat as National Champions..
While Lisa's name is listed in the All American & All Region Teams, look in the record book in 2019, she's been passed by a few younger UConn Greats...I found her career numbers in the 2008 Media Guide....37 goals and 12 assists between 1981 and 84' . Now married and was a Physical Education Teacher in Franklin, Mass....And was even the first Coach for Field Hockey at Dean College...In 2016, Lisa was part of the US Master's Team that played in Australia and took home a Bronze Medal for the 45 and Over Team..Per her Facebook Page, she's involved in Patriot Field Hockey in Mass...
One of the key players from the early 80's success...Lisa D'Amadio Cropper...a 2x First Team All American and a UConn Legend