Ivy League Sports

When Penn’s Diane Angstadt graduated in 1981, her college achievements exemplified the Ivy League’s dual commitment to scholarship and athletics. Not only did Angstadt win the Father’s Trophy as the university’s top female scholar-athlete, but her grade-point average of 3.98 in biology made her the first woman to receive the Frazier Award, given to the Penn student-athlete with the highest GPA while enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences. A three-sport competitor, she was first team All-Ivy in field hockey in 1980 and 1981, as well as Ivy Player of the Year and the team’s most valuable player in 1980. Angstadt is currently a psychiatrist specializing in geriatrics at the Hershey Medical Center, and an award named in her honor is given to the most inspirational field hockey player at Penn each year.

Even with the honors bestowed upon Angstadt and many other individual athletes, the 1980s were a time of remarkable team accomplishments at Penn — most notably in fencing, field hockey, and lacrosse. During this time, the fencing team was the Ivy League champion for six straight years, from 1983 through 1988. The 1985 squad won the NCAA Mid-Atlantic South Regional and placed second in the NCAA championship. The next year, the team took first place in the United States Fencing Association (USFA) Championships and first place in the NCAA regionals, and then crowned its performance by winning the NCAA championship, making it three straight years that an Ivy school captured the ultimate prize at the NCAA competition. The 1988 team also won the USFA championship and placed third at the NCAAs. In individual performance, Mary Jane O’Neill won the national championship in 1984 and was named to the All-Ivy first team in 1984, 1985, and 1986.

Penn also dominated the Ivy League in field hockey during the decade. After sharing the 1981 title with Princeton, the Quakers won four more Ivy titles from 1983 to 1988. The pinnacle came in 1988 when Penn reached the semifinal round of the NCAA tournament, held at the team’s home on Franklin Field, becoming the first Ivy League school to advance beyond the first round. A star of those championship years was Nicky Hitchens, who was a first team All-Ivy selection in 1986, 1987, and 1988; Ivy Rookie of the Year in 1985 and Player of the Year in 1988; and an All-American in 1986 and 1988.

Penn’s indoor track and field teams also achieved notable League success, winning five consecutive Ivy League championships from 1984 to 1988 and taking the Heptagonal titles in 1987 and 1988. Penn also was the top Ivy finisher at the Outdoor Heps in 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1988 and won the Heptagonal title in 1985, 1986, and 1988, finishing second to Army in 1984. In 1988, Frances Childs became Penn’s only woman to win a championship at the Penn Relays, in the heptathlon.

The volleyball teams won Ivy championships in 1982, 1986, and 1989. Two standout players on those teams were Kari Sommerstad and Melissa Ingalls. Sommerstad, a four-time All-Ivy player, still holds Penn career records in service aces (167) and season records in block assists (109), solo blocks (82), total blocks (161), and digs (436). A four-time first team All-Ivy selection, Ingalls won the League’s first two Ivy Player of the Year honors in the sport in 1987 and 1988, and remains the school’s all-time leader in digs (1,313), hitting attempts (3,396), and kills (1,129).

In the first Ivy League championship in lacrosse, which was determined by regular season play in 1979-80, Penn was declared co-champions with Yale and advanced to the semifinal round of the AIAW championship tournament. Coached by Anne Sage, the 1982 team tied with Harvard for the League championship, won the AIAW regional championship, and advanced to the semifinal round in the AIAW national championship.

Outstanding individual squash stars of the decade included Karen Kelso and Alicia McConnell, both of whom graduated in 1985. Kelso was the first Penn women’s squash player to garner four straight All-Ivy honors, the only other being Jessica DiMauro from 1996 to 1999. A three-time All-Ivy League selection and three-time WISRA national champion, McConnell had been a four-time Canadian junior champion before arriving at Penn and had the distinction of being named junior champion at the first International Squash Racquets Federation world championship.

Ten Penn women participated in the Olympics during this decade. The 1980 team that stayed home because of the U.S. boycott included rowers Hope Barnes and Karla Drewsen, as well as field hockey player Julie Staver, who was to have co-captained the United States team. That year was the first time women’s field hockey was included in the Olympic Games. At the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games, rowers Barnes, Barbara Kirch, and Lisa Rhode participated. Staver also played in the Los Angeles Games, on the team that won the bronze medal in field hockey, and Joan Phenglaor became Penn’s first woman track Olympian, competing in the long jump for her native country of Thailand. Kirch returned in the 1988 Seoul Games, along with crew teammates Angie Herron, Jenny Marshall, and Key Worthington. Penn’s Mary Jane O’Neill also competed that year in fencing.

Aside from athletic accomplishments, important institutional support was gained at Penn in 1985-86, when a group of alumni and staff formed the Women’s Athletic Advisory Board to support the status, development, policy, and needs of women athletes at Penn. Among its members was Constance Huston Hurlbut, a 1983 graduate who played field hockey and lacrosse as a student. Hurlbut became the first Ivy League assistant director in 1986, executive director of the Patriot League in 1993 (the first woman to head an NCAA Division I conference), and the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) executive vice president for basketball operations in 1999. She was succeeded at the Patriot League by long-time Penn senior associate athletic director Carolyn Schlie Femovich.