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The UNH women's lacrosse team stirred up an awful lot of dust back in 1985. They practiced at night, after a long day of classes, running hard, kicking up clouds of dirt as they worked their way back and forth across "the pit," the indoor training area in the Field House. It was grimy. It was grueling. And, in the end--when the team wound up winning the national championship--it was glorious. The victory was UNH's first--and remains its only--NCAA-sponsored championship.

Most of the team members were actually field hockey players. It was their coach, Marisa Didio '78, who convinced them to give lacrosse a try. She coached both sports, and she knew she had a group of talented athletes. "We didn't think we were special," she says. "We just worked hard." And then, suddenly, after earning an at-large bid to the NCAA championships, UNH was facing off against Maryland's Terrapins, one of the finest teams in the country.

"It was completely surreal," recalls Barb Marois '86, who later played field hockey on the 1996 Olympic team. "We weren't supposed to be there--most of us had never even played lacrosse before!" The coaching made the difference. "Marisa expected a lot out of us and knew how to bring out the best in us," says Marois.

"The game was a nail-biter," says Didio, describing the highlights: the goal by Sarah Kittredge Campbell '86 that broke the 5-5 tie; the final "incredible save" by goalie Robin Balducci '85. The team was greeted by a police escort when they returned to Durham. And this spring, when they returned again for a reunion, they reminisced about that day in May, 25 years ago, remembering what it was like to come out of nowhere--and win.