The 2001 Michigan field hockey team earned the Wolverines their first NCAA team championship in a women's sport by way of a 2-0 win over top-ranked Maryland on Nov. 18, in the NCAA Championship game at Kent State's Dix Stadium.  Goals by freshman forward Adrienne Hortillosa and sophomore defender Kristi Gannon, plus the stellar play of senior goalkeeper Maureen Tasch, gave seventh-ranked Michigan (18-5) the Big Ten's second national championship in field hockey, joining 1986 champion Iowa.

The Wolverines' defense, which held opponents to just six shots per game in 2001, survived a shelling by Maryland as the Terrapins unloaded 20 shots, including 11 in the second half.  Eleven of the Terps' total shots were made on the net, but Tasch was there to knock them away en route to her eighth shutout of the season, setting the U-M school record for shutouts in a single campaign.  Along with Tasch, Gannon, Hortillosa, Stephanie Johnson and April Fronzoni were named to the NCAA All-Tournament team.

Michigan's NCAA championship was the first by a women's team sport in school history and was the 51st national team title in U-M athletics history.  Each victory during the 2001 NCAA Championship came against a team ranked at least as high as the No. 7 Wolverines.  U-M defeated No. 4 North Carolina, No. 7 Michigan State, No. 6 Princeton and No. 1 Maryland to win the 2001 national title.

THEY SAID IT
Michigan Head Coach Marcia Pankratz
"Our team effort included everybody, and that's how it's been all year. We don't have any superstars, we just have a team that plays hard and plays well together.  I'm just happy to bring another one home for the Wolverines. Men's program, women's programs, revs, non-revs, it doesn't matter. We're just really proud to be a part of the university and they've given us so much tremendous support to help us be successful, and we're just happy we're able to bring home a championship."

Wolverine sophomore Stephanie Johnson
"Having gone through the last month of ups and downs with our team, we came out this season thinking we should be the No. 1 team. We played like we were for a month at the beginning of the season, had the ups and downs in the middle, and learned what it took to be a No. 1 team at that point in time. The No. 1 team (Maryland) coming in today maybe hadn't had the adversity to relish the position we had been in, so we knew what sort of rare opportunity we had been presented with. We had a lot of momentum going in our direction in the last couple of weeks, and it's a great feeling to go out there and do that today."