Mari Creatini and Diana Nelson looked around at their competition at last week’s U.S.A. Field Hockey tryouts in Virginia Beach, Va.

“Everybody was really talented; I had my doubts,” Creatini said of her chances to make the team. Creatini finished her fourth and final year with the Northeastern field hockey team in November alongside goaltender Nelson.

Maybe it was the sight of the 2004 NCAA Player of the Year, Kelly Dostal of Wake Forest, or 12 other players vying for a second straight year on the team.

Either way, Creatini and Nelson were both competing after a season in which their team gained its fourth straight America East championship and both sought an honor — a spot on the exclusive squad — that would top anything they had ever accomplished in their equally illustrious NU careers.

“I thought I had the potential [for the team],” Nelson said of the tryouts that occurred between Jan. 14 and 17. “But I didn’t think it would happen this quick.”

The news came quickly for Creatini, who learned of her selection Monday.

“Everything was a blur when I found out,” Creatini said. “I kept checking the list over and over to make sure it was true. I couldn’t see any other names.”

For Nelson, the selection was a culmination of everything she had accomplished at Northeastern — including four AE titles, an 18-4 record her senior year and a save percentage that at .820 was fourth in the nation.

“This is something I wanted from the minute I started playing,” Nelson said. “It’s unreal, almost. We just found out Monday, and it’s still just sinking in. I’m still taking it all in.”

Creatini and Nelson are both members of a 25-woman squad that includes representatives from such schools as the University of Massachusett, Boston University and the University of Maryland.

Creatini, a two-time All American (2003-04), led the nation with 72 points and 29 goals in 2003. Switching from forward to midfield this season, success came again for the Newton North graduate, as she still ranked in the top 20 nationally with 19 goals and 41 points.

For both women, the opportunities at Northeastern – such as co-op and athletic competition, is enough of an experience. To reach for and make the U.S.A. Field Hockey team is in a class by itself, said NU coach Cheryl Murtagh.

“I never pushed our players to make this a goal [to make the U.S.A. team]. I wanted them to get a great education, to do co-op and to play field hockey,” Murtagh said. “The fact that they pushed for this and wanted to do it, I think is awesome.”

Murtagh, who took over the program in 1988, sees this as an opportunity for the Huskies to gain the attention they deserved.

“Northeatern has been a top team but has not always been recognized for having great individual players,” she said. “I am very proud for both of them; they both deserve it. They both went to tryouts and stood out.”

Creatini has had her share of competition in both New England and national field hockey. Now as a member of the U.S.A. squad, the competition turns to the international level.

“Going from the national to the international level, just to be a part of it, is amazing,” she said.

Creatini and Nelson, as four-year Huskies in a time of one of the team’s most succcessful runs, were equally happy to be competing together for the team.

“I was really happy that we were together there,” Nelson said. “We kind of went through this whole thing together, and we both found out at the same time.”

As a member of the team, it’s only more of an incentive to compete as hard as possible, Creatini said.

“I still feel I have to improve a lot; it’s only a matter of who works the hardest,” she said.

To play as a representative of Northeastern, Creatini said, is an honor in itself.

“It’s just great to say, I’m playing from Northeastern, that both me and Diana are from NU,” Creatini said.

Competition will begin for both in March, before a four-game series begins in Argentina in April.

The Women’s Rabobank Champions Challege will take place in Virginia in July.

“We were just shocked; with everything we’ve been through together in the last four years making it from Northeastern, for us, it’s really an amazing honor,” Creatini said.