Temple University Athletics
1988 Temple Lacrosse Team wins NCAA Championship
Decade of Dominance: Looking Back on Three National Titles Won by Temple Lacrosse in the 1980’s
7.6.15 | Women's Lacrosse
Temple lacrosse boasts three national championships in program history, the most of any sport at the university. All three of those titles were earned in the 1980's as the team rose to the status of one of the sport's elite programs. Temple won the AIAW Championship in 1982 and went on to win NCAA Championships in both 1984 and 1988, with all three coming under legendary head coach Tina Sloan-Green. In a three-part series, we look back on each championship during the Temple lacrosse team's "Decade of Dominance."
1988: Looking Back on the Temple Lacrosse Team's Undefeated Season and Third National Title
The third national title in six years for Temple lacrosse was won in 1988 as the Owls went undefeated for the only time in the history of the program. Temple finished the year at 19-0 and won the NCAA Championship with a 15-7 victory against Penn State.
The title game was a rematch of the previous year, when the Owls had lost by just a single goal to the Nittany Lions in the NCAA Championship, which was the only blemish on the record for the 1987 squad. One season later, Temple concluded a season of dominance on May 16 at Walton Field in Haverford, Pa., with its eight-goal win.
Senior Gail Cummings, now Cummings-Danson, finished the 1988 season with a program-record 94 goals. Her 289 career goals still stand as the NCAA record, 17 years later. A three-time All-American, Cummings-Danson was named to the 1988 NCAA All-Tournament Team along with fellow senior and three-time All-American Mandee Moore, now Amanda O'Leary and the head coach at nationally-ranked Florida.
The Owls scored seven goals in a row in the first half of their championship win, three of which came from Cummings-Danson. She finished with four goals in the contest. Denise Bourassa matched Cummings-Danson with four goals, and both players recorded an assist.
Six Temple players were named All-Americans from the 1988 team. In addition to Cummings-Danson, Moore and Bourassa, Kim (Lambdin) Ciarrocca, Kelly Grim and Barb (Hick) Questa earned the honor. Twenty years after being a part of Temple's most recent national title, Cummings-Danson spoke to the Temple News about the experience.
"You don't do those things by yourself," she said. "Somebody had to get me the ball. No individual was going to win that championship for us. It was teamwork and those relationships, those bonds, with the team will never be broken and will never die."
Many of the players remain in touch from the 1988 team, and attended the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductions of Sloan Green, O'Leary, and Cummings-Danson in 1997, 2005, and 2007, respectively.
Ciarrocca, who went on to coach for 22 years at the collegiate level at both Temple and the University of Delaware, told the Temple News just how much the championship meant to her.
"It was one of the best moments of my life," she said. "It's probably third after my children and my marriage. And what made it even more special was that the team was friends on and off the field and we've kept in touch up to now. If I had the chance, I'd do it all over again."
Temple was coached to all three of its national championships by the legendary Tina Sloan-Green, a member of five Halls of Fame who was the head coach from 1973 to 1992.
In 2012, the 1988 Temple Lacrosse Team was inducted into the Temple Athletics Hall of Fame. Individually, Cummings-Danson, Ciarrocca and O'Leary have been inducted, as has Aamina Thornton, a member of the team and a 1990 All-America selection.
"Those players were a coaching dream," said Sloan Green. "They were tremendous leaders on and off the field and when they walked on the field that day, they knew exactly what they needed to do."
1988: Looking Back on the Temple Lacrosse Team's Undefeated Season and Third National Title
The third national title in six years for Temple lacrosse was won in 1988 as the Owls went undefeated for the only time in the history of the program. Temple finished the year at 19-0 and won the NCAA Championship with a 15-7 victory against Penn State.
The title game was a rematch of the previous year, when the Owls had lost by just a single goal to the Nittany Lions in the NCAA Championship, which was the only blemish on the record for the 1987 squad. One season later, Temple concluded a season of dominance on May 16 at Walton Field in Haverford, Pa., with its eight-goal win.
Senior Gail Cummings, now Cummings-Danson, finished the 1988 season with a program-record 94 goals. Her 289 career goals still stand as the NCAA record, 17 years later. A three-time All-American, Cummings-Danson was named to the 1988 NCAA All-Tournament Team along with fellow senior and three-time All-American Mandee Moore, now Amanda O'Leary and the head coach at nationally-ranked Florida.
The Owls scored seven goals in a row in the first half of their championship win, three of which came from Cummings-Danson. She finished with four goals in the contest. Denise Bourassa matched Cummings-Danson with four goals, and both players recorded an assist.
Six Temple players were named All-Americans from the 1988 team. In addition to Cummings-Danson, Moore and Bourassa, Kim (Lambdin) Ciarrocca, Kelly Grim and Barb (Hick) Questa earned the honor. Twenty years after being a part of Temple's most recent national title, Cummings-Danson spoke to the Temple News about the experience.
"You don't do those things by yourself," she said. "Somebody had to get me the ball. No individual was going to win that championship for us. It was teamwork and those relationships, those bonds, with the team will never be broken and will never die."
Many of the players remain in touch from the 1988 team, and attended the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductions of Sloan Green, O'Leary, and Cummings-Danson in 1997, 2005, and 2007, respectively.
Ciarrocca, who went on to coach for 22 years at the collegiate level at both Temple and the University of Delaware, told the Temple News just how much the championship meant to her.
"It was one of the best moments of my life," she said. "It's probably third after my children and my marriage. And what made it even more special was that the team was friends on and off the field and we've kept in touch up to now. If I had the chance, I'd do it all over again."
Temple was coached to all three of its national championships by the legendary Tina Sloan-Green, a member of five Halls of Fame who was the head coach from 1973 to 1992.
In 2012, the 1988 Temple Lacrosse Team was inducted into the Temple Athletics Hall of Fame. Individually, Cummings-Danson, Ciarrocca and O'Leary have been inducted, as has Aamina Thornton, a member of the team and a 1990 All-America selection.
"Those players were a coaching dream," said Sloan Green. "They were tremendous leaders on and off the field and when they walked on the field that day, they knew exactly what they needed to do."
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