By Jenna Ciccotelli, deputy sports editor
In 1988, her first year commandeering the Northeastern University field hockey team, Cheryl Murtagh, who had stepped up from her role as assistant coach after four seasons with the Huskies, led the team to a 16-4-2 record. Three of those wins came in the team’s NCAA tournament Final Four appearance — the first in the history of the program — to catapult the eight-year-old program to third place in the nation.
“The NU field hockey team had never made it to an NCAA tournament before at all,” Murtagh said. “The fact that this group of women believed that they could do it was phenomenal. Once they did, they didn’t stop there. It was kind of like, okay, this is how we expect things to be.”
Three decades later, Murtagh has led Northeastern to 41 conference and NCAA tournament victories and at least one playoff victory in 22 of the last 29 seasons, continually grooming her players into exceptional students and athletes. In her thirty years at the helm of the Huskies, Murtagh has raised 41 All-American and 72 first-team All-Conference selections. In addition, 12 of her players were named conference Player of the Year and seven were named Academic All-Americans.
“Someone asked me how I want to leave Northeastern later this year, and honestly, my celebration has been 34 years,” said Murtagh, who will retire following this season. “It’s lasted that long. I’m so grateful for having been allowed to be at a university like this.”
Murtagh, the 1988 team and other Northeastern field hockey alumni were honored at the second annual Celebration of Legends dinner Saturday at the Northeastern University Alumni Center.
1988 alumni on hand were Annie Mucera, Amy Westerman, Debra Sweeney, Rachel Tyler, Eileen Pailes and Andrea Doucette.
Doucette, whose maiden name was Topping, was a junior when she scored the winning goal over the University of Pennsylvania to push the Huskies to finish third in the country in the 1988 NCAA tournament. Now she is in her 21st year working full-time at Northeastern, where she serves as a facilities customer service manager.
“It was something that we strived to get to at the beginning, and when we got there we were all a little bit in awe of the moment,” she said. “It was fun. We were all young and naive, but it was great, it was exciting. Even though it’s not a basketball Final Four, it’s not like a prestigious thing, but to get into the Final Four of any sport is such an amazing accomplishment.”
Crystal Poland, a two-time first-team All-American who played for the Huskies from 2009 to 2012, recalled the time she was nearly late for a team meeting.
“Cheryl [Murtagh] asked me, ‘How’s it going?’ and I breathlessly replied, ‘Good,’” Poland laughed. “As soon as Cheryl chuckled, I knew we were in the clear.”
Poland, who also holds the record for the club’s all-time leading scorer with 78 career goals and 179 career points, proposed a toast to Murtagh and all field hockey alumni after sharing stories of leaving her stick in the bookstore before a weekend road trip and giving up bacon for the field hockey season with Murtagh.
As several alumni pointed out, it was these moments with Murtagh that allowed the coach to be so successful in the books and in the hearts of Northeastern alumni through her thirtieth and final season.
“She was destined to be who she is,” Doucette said of Murtagh. “Destined.”
