There have been several outstanding and historic seasons in Fairfield University sports history. The 1987-88 women's basketball season was one of them
 
By Chris Elsberry
 
FAIRFIELD – At halftime, the game was over. Or, at least in the minds of the LaSalle women's basketball team, it was.
 
Just before the first half buzzer, Jennifer Snyder hit a 3-pointer to give the Explorers a double-digit lead. LaSalle had held Fairfield to less than 20 points, held them to 25 percent shooting from the floor and forced them into 14 turnovers.

The MAAC tournament championship and a ticket to the NCAA tournament was already in their grasp.
 
Or so they thought.
 
The cheering and the laughter coming from the LaSalle locker room could be heard loud and clear through the wall that separated the Stags' locker room from the Explorers. The halftime celebration was more than enough to raise the hairs on the backs of the Fairfield players' necks.
 
"I don't remember a lot about the game, but I remember at halftime, they thought the game was over," senior guard Trish Barrett said. "They felt like they had it, but in our eyes, it wasn't anywhere close to being over. There was still a whole half of basketball to play. That kind of gave us extra motivation. We knew we were going to keep fighting."
 
"You know what it was? We knew we weren't playing our best, I think that was more of it," senior guard Dana Pellegrino said. "As much as they were celebrating, it wasn't because of what they were doing in as much as it was because of what we weren't doing. I think that motivated us a lot."
 
All season long, Fairfield's success had been based on hard work, team play and chemistry. An intense non-conference schedule had prepped the Stags for MAAC play and now, at the beginning of March Madness, Fairfield found itself just 20 minutes away of its' first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament.

It turned out to be the most incredible 20 minutes in Fairfield University women's basketball history.
 
Putting the pieces together
 
By the time the four newest members of the Fairfield University women's basketball team arrived on campus – freshmen Tricia Sacca, Shanna Lewis, Lisa Mikelic and Teresa Maguire – head coach Dianne Nolan had already assembled a solid core of veteran players, including seniors Dana Pellegrino, Tasia Turkalo, Trish Barrett and Terry Voegler. There was a junior, Cheryl Trumbo and sophomores Kathy Gailor, Renita Pritchett, Tabitha Brickhouse and Barbara Robb. There was talent, experience, depth.
 
And toughness.
 
"They were all as tough as nails," Head Coach Dianne Nolan said. "One through 11 … amazing. They cared about each other."
 
"We just jelled, it was pretty amazing," added Barrett. "It was a great year. Everyone got along, there wasn't any contention. We all knew what we had to do, the freshmen bought into it and we just went for it."
 
"We came in and it was a family environment," Mikelic said. "Everyone had tremendous respect for each other. The senior leadership was incredible, we had tremendous leaders and we were all willing to do whatever it took for each other. Great chemistry. We all wanted to be successful."
 
"Great girls, great teammates," added Turkalo. "Wonderful, hard-working, smart, committed."
 
It didn't take Nolan long to insert both Mikelic and Sacca into the starting lineup. In practice, Mikelic would routinely leap into the stands, or dive on the floor, to save a loose ball and keep a play going while Sacca would literally run through a wall – or a head coach – because of her tough-as-nails mentality.
 
"I thought my career was over after just three days," Sacca said. "We were running a three-man weave and Dianne was standing in the middle of the court and I was running, looking to get the drill right and not looking ahead and I crashed right into her and knocked her flying. The place went dead silent for a minute. I thought I had ruined the day for everyone, but Dianne just got up, dusted herself off, blew the whistle and practice kept going."
 
According to Pellegrino, it was the old Aretha Franklin adage R-E-S-P-E-C-T that set the groundwork for success that season.
 
"There was no drama. It was all about working together and doing what was best for the team," she said. "We had great chemistry. Our bus driver Don, he'd play music for us and he always played the song 'We are Family' and that's what we were, family. Not only the upperclassmen but the freshmen, they were all great players and great people. We made each other work hard. Lisa and Tricia came right in and went to work, Cathy Gailor, Cheryl Trumbo, Tabith Brickhouse, Shanna Lewis, whenever they went in, there was never a drop off."
 
Mikelic agrees.
 
"Every time Cathy Gailor came in, you knew the level of play was going to stay the same," she said. "Cheryl, Tabby, Renita (Pritchett) you knew they were going to perform. Maybe they didn't play as many minutes as everyone else but when they were on the floor they were just as good as the starters, that's why we were successful."
 
The motto for the season was 'On a Mission.' It came from a scheduling mix-up in the previous season where the Stags played one too many regular season games and were disqualified from playing in the 1986-87 MAAC tournament. That disappointment was a driving force throughout the year.
 
"I don't know how that happened, but we were disqualified," Barrett said. "I'm saying that we would have gone to the NCAA tournament that season too, I believe it, I really do. So, that next season, I played for the previous seniors, Pam Rivers, Chana Wilkerson, Karen Brandt, they were so instrumental in helping me along. I wanted to win for them more than for myself."
 
 
 
Starting slow, picking up speed
 
The regular season opened in Seattle with a game against Washington of the Pac-10, a team that had gone 23-7 the previous year and participated in the NCAA tournament. Playing in front of almost 2,000 people at the Edmundson Pavilion, Fairfield fell by a 73-59 score.
 
"I didn't know what the hell I was doing," Sacca said. "I'd never been to the West Coast in my life. I'd never played in front of so many people. I remember Dianne coming down the bench to put me in the game and I didn't get up. I'm thinking to myself, 'I'm not going into this game.' What did I get myself into? I was just trying to survive."
 
The next night against Eastern Washington, Fairfield found the win column, beating the Eagles 81-62. A win at Central Connecticut, home wins against Rider and Vermont, along with another road win at Iona, lifted the Stags to a 5-1 start.
 
But Fairfield dropped both games in the Wildcat Christmas Classic at Villanova to Notre Dame and Siena and then lost at Brigham Young and Utah to fall back to .500 before righting the ship with wins against Hartford and New Hampshire.
 
"What I remember about BYU and Utah was, there was a big snowstorm going on while we were there and the bus had to drive through it," Pellegrino said. "It was crazy. But those games toughened us up and that's a tribute to Dianne. She really did try to have us prepared and challenged. We were ready for the conference."
 
A loss to LaSalle opened MAAC play but Fairfield reeled off eight wins in its next nine games – again, losing to LaSalle – to stand at 15-7 overall and 8-2 in the conference.
 
"We grew as a unit because we were prepared," Mikelic said, who averaged 12.9 points and 6.6 rebounds. "We played the best. We never backed down from any competition because we felt we were just a talented as anyone. We were prepared for MAAC play. We gained from each loss. The MAAC was really competitive, we fought every night."
 
"That whole conference, looking back at it, it was one of the top conferences in the country," Sacca said. "Fordham, St. Peter's, LaSalle, Holy Cross, Iona, Manhattan, it was just unbelievable women's basketball. Everyone was good."
 
Fairfield stumbled against both Holy Cross and Manhattan before beating Cleveland State in a non-conference game to finish the regular season at 16-9.
 
In the MAAC quarterfinals, the Stags took care of Fordham, winning 80-66 as Sacca scored 17 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Mikelic, the MAAC Rookie of the Year, scored 18 points, had six steals and four assists and Shanna Lewis – who had scored just 47 points all season – chipped in with 11 points on 5 for 7 shooting from the floor.
 
The next day against Holy Cross in the semifinals, it was Turkalo's time to shine as she scored 22 points to lead five players in double figures.
 
"I was a scorer and a rebounder, those were my two main jobs," Turkalo said. "Those were the things I knew I had to get done."
 
Sacca added 16 points and eight rebounds, Pellegrino had 15 points and seven assists, Mikelic had 14 points and Trish Barrett had 13 points and handed out seven assists.
 
"I just remember wanting to play hard and do what I could to help the team win," Sacca said, who averaged 7.4 points and 6.7 rebounds. "That simple formula."
 
Even if that meant going to the nearby hospital for stitches after taking an elbow to the forehead against the Crusaders.
 
"I took an elbow from someone at the foul line and got like, 10 or 12 stitches," Sacca said. "At first I thought it was just sweat and then I wiped my face and its blood. I literally walked to the hospital, it was right down the street, and I got stitched up. It swelled up overnight and I looked like Rocky Balboa, but if I could walk, I was playing."
 
End of Part One. Check back on Friday for the second part of this story which picks up with Fairfield taking on La Salle in the MAAC championship final.