Northwestern beat Liberty 2-0 to lift their first NCAA field hockey title on Sunday.
Northwestern, who had beaten North Carolina in the first round, struck twice in the third quarter to create history.
Alia Marshall and USA’s Maddie Zimmer scored her ninth of the season to see Northwestern to the title.
Both teams were making their first appearances in the national title game, the first time this had occurred since 1987.
Sunday’s match was also the first time in NCAA Division I history that a former player was competing against her former coach; Liberty’s Nikki Parsley-Blocker having played for NU’s Tracey Fuchs from 2010 to 2013.
Sunday’s win saw head coach Fuchs win her third national title in her career – two as a coach and one as a player.
Zimmer won the award for the tournament’s most outsanding player.
