Darien’s Humphrey Sisters
PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREA CERASO
TRIPLE THREAT:
Darien’s Humphrey Sisters
Make NCAA National
Championship History
Defying all odds, Nicole (24), Ashley (23), and Chloe (20), won the 2025 NCAA National Championship in Women’s Lacrosse playing together for the University of North Carolina ‘Tar Heels’...and Chloe was named the National Championship Game MVP, Team MVP, and won the Tewaaraton Award - the lacrosse equivalent of the Heisman Trophy!
…And beyond their spectacular individual and collective achievements in the world of lacrosse, these beautiful young ladies are bright, upbeat, humble, focused, fun…and as All-American as apple pie …and lacrosse!
While Chloe is in the vaulted family room throwing a lacrosse ball off the six-inch wide window frame in the middle of the wall of windows fifteen or twenty feet up in the air - in such a feat of skill and display of dexterity that it’s hard to pay attention to anything but the chance of a giant crash each time she releases the 5 ounce ball from the web on the 35 inch long lacrosse stick…
Nicole, the oldest and at least a little bit the leader, begins to explain the girls’ journey…“Ashley and I both started-out at New Canaan Country School for elementary school and Greens Farms Academy for middle school, and as kids I did gymnastics and played soccer and Ashley mostly played basketball. During my time at Darien Youth Lacrosse I met Coach Rich Van den Broek, who played lacrosse at Harvard, and who Ashley and I credit with fostering our lacrosse careers. I started to focus on lacrosse and got pretty good pretty fast. …The three of us were able to see the direct correlation of hard work and success and that propelled us forward. …Then when I was in 9th grade and Ashley was in 8th grade, the Assistant Coach of the University of North Carolina Women’s Lacrosse Team, Phil Barnes, came to watch us play. He told us that if we were serious about our lacrosse we should transfer to our hometown public school in Darien - which we did…and by the end of that year I committed to UNC and Ashley committed to Standford!”
Nicole continues, “...When it comes to the top high school programs in Women’s Lacrosse, there’s Darien and…well, there’s Darien! …With Head Coach Lisa Lindley running the program for the last 31years, Darien is a perennial powerhouse in Women’s Lacrosse - being ranked in the top 20 in the U.S. for decades, and ranked #1 in the U.S. in 2025!”
In high school, Nicole and Ashley joined forces leading Darien to 2017 and 2019 State Championships, with Nicole and Ashley being named 2-time All-Americans in 2018 and 2019, and Ashley being named the 2019 GameTimeCT All-State Player of the Year, amongst other accomplishments and honors. …And, although there was no overlap with her older sisters, Chloe also starred at Darien, winning the State Championship in 2023, and being named the 2023 CT Player of the Year, and the #1 college recruit in the U.S.
The girls’ Dad, John Humphrey, comments, “If you ask what the special sauce was, it’s Darien. College coaches are lined-up to see Darien play, and being recruited for lacrosse makes all the difference in getting into the Ivies and the highly competitive universities which are the regular powerhouses in women’s college lacrosse, like UNC, Virginia, Maryland, Northwestern, and Notre Dame. …Don’t get me wrong, my girls were each excellent students and they each worked really hard to do what they did, but the whole environment and inherent expectation in Darien is something different. …And in terms of their general growth and development, the days of them doing drills and playing catch together in the backyard - often with me, and the endless hours of trips together in the car and for overnights at faraway matches and tournaments - giving me and Sarah the time to talk with each of them, share their experiences, and even slip-in a little guidance and advice, were invaluable.” To which Sarah, who played Lacrosse at Dartmouth, adds, “We were always there to support the girls, and John, who played Basketball at Middlebury and is still their all-time leading scorer, actually was a good backseat coach in terms of discussing strategies and mindframe for lacrosse. We did set a standard for the girls in terms of how to play the game and how to compete generally, but otherwise we were pretty hands-off as parents. I was a trusts and estates attorney and John recently retired from a career in distressed debt - and I’m sure our son, Brett, who’s a senior at Greens Farms Academy, thinks we’re now around way too much - but for all the time the girls were in high school, we were working. The girls set their own goals and expectations…and have never waivered.”
“Because of Covid, and injuries, and other circumstances, we had the chance to all three play together at UNC for the 2025 season. …It was the experience of a lifetime to share the National Championship with my sisters!”
Nicole resumes, “I played for UNC for four years, graduating with a major in Advertising and Public Relations from the UNC School of Journalism, and with one extra year of NCAA eligibility left due to Covid. During my lacrosse career as an undergraduate at UNC, I won the 2022 National Championship and when the time came to make a decision if I wanted to stay for another year at UNC, I ultimately decided that I wanted to experience the West Coast, so I joined the team at the University of Southern California. I enrolled in a Master’s of Science program in Entrepreneurship in the Marshall School of Business and was excited to start my next chapter, but unfortunately got injured on the first day of practice. I tore my Lisfranc, which is a notoriously difficult injury to return from. Although doctors advised me to hang up the cleats, I knew that the universe was aligning to give me an even greater opportunity…to play with my two sisters back at UNC. When the idea of us three being able to unite to play together for one year at UNC became a reality, I enrolled for a Master’s in Applied Professional Studies, alongside Ashley, in order to play my final year of NCAA eligibility as a ‘Tar Heel’.”
Ashley follows her big-sister, “I went to Stanford, thinking I wanted to try something different from Nicole, and I did play two seasons with the Cardinals. But when Nicole won the National Championship in 2022, every ounce of me wanted to do that so badly. I talked to my family and academic advisors and we devised a plan that would allow me to graduate a semester early and apply for a Masters at UNC. I spent my summer at Stanford, taking four classes, and was ultimately eligible to graduate in December of 2023 - so I arrived at UNC in January of 2024 to play the 2024 season with the Tar Heels …While the 2024 season was not up to UNC’s standards, we won the National Championship in 2025 all together… which made all of the moves worth it.”
“Nicole and Ashley paved the way for me in Darien and, like them, I was really influenced by Coach Lindley,” Chloe adds. “Not just in terms of lacrosse, but in terms of focus and discipline, learning how to prioritize both lacrosse and our studies and schedule our lives to fit it all in… And there was never a doubt that I was going to UNC. …We’d spent so much time there together as a family watching Nicole play, and because of Covid, and injuries, and other circumstances, we had the chance to all three play together at UNC for the 2025 season. …It was the experience of a lifetime to share the National Championship with my sisters!”
To be sure, the sisters have received nationwide notice for their unique achievement winning the National Championship together. They were honored on the 2025 ESPY Awards - with the whole family travelling to Los Angeles for the event - they appeared on CBS Mornings, and they were featured in People Magazine. “We even got to meet Simone Biles,” Nicole says unabashedly, “...she’s incredible!”
.…Less than one year after the sisters’ National Championship, with the clear-eyed confidence and what-it-takes to succeed in whatever they try - and a couple of Championship rings to help open a few doors - Nicole has started her career in wealth management as a Client Advisory Analyst at Offit Capital, and Ashley has started in sales and trading as a Credit Sales Analyst at Bank of America - and the two sisters are living together in New York City. Ashley comments, …We are hoping to play professionally and the draft is in January, so we’ll see what happens…”
Chloe received the Honda Award at the end of her freshman year season, so she has several more years to play at top-ranked UNC to build on her already-legendary status. As her Dad boasts, “She’s got no weakness. Girls who’ve played against her can’t tell whether she’s a righty or lefty. She has speed, and a tremendous lacrosse IQ!” …The leading professional Women’s Lacrosse League, launched by Premier Lacrosse League, is now a publicly-traded company with a growing media presence and fanbase, and with stars like Bedfordite Sammy Jo Tracy - who won National Championships with the ‘Tar Heels’ in 2013 and 2016, and who was featured in the Jan/Feb 2022 issue of Bedford & New Canaan Magazine - playing with the California Palms - one of the league’s four teams - and appearing as an international ambassador for the game, professional lacrosse is just now becoming more and more lucrative. …And, perhaps most important, women’s lacrosse will be an Olympic sport in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles - only two years from now, which could bring the kind of attention to the sport, or at least a few of the athletes, that translates into real commercial opportunity.
Chloe has signed-on with the influential sports agency, Wasserman, and already landed a contract with lacrosse equipment manufacturer STX. “My goal is certainly to be a professional lacrosse player,” Chloe declares. “...Although I’m still focused on my studies at UNC where I am majoring in Business …I hope the Olympics will mean the dawn of a new age for women’s lacrosse, and I would be honored to be a part of what comes after that.
“It’s not all butterflies and roses,” Chloe decries. “ I hurt my back in high school and had a titanium screw put into my Pelvic bone, and I’ve had a couple of hip surgeries. Nicole recently had five screws removed from her foot which she had put in after being injured at USC. Ashley broke a few bones along the way, and has always had to deal with pain. …And the routine at UNC under Coach Jenny Levy is demanding! Everyone on the team is expected to excel in academics as well. We have full-field practice five to six days a week during the Spring and Fall seasons - and let’s just say there’s a lot of sprints and interval training during practice. Then there’s lifting three mornings a week and long runs at least twice a week. And I’m really focused on diet…and trying to get the right amount of rest and recovery. …I don’t really go out that much. …But, you know, I think when it comes down to it we’re all really motivated by winning! I know that one of the reasons to participate in organized sports as a kid is to learn all the lessons of a hard-fought loss, but the truth is lacrosse has been almost all about victory for the three of us! “It’s true, winning feels good and having hard work pay off is very satisfying,”
“But - and I think this is a tribute to our parents - I think the best thing about our experience with lacrosse is that we got to play in a very free way and to really play for the pure enjoyment of it. …We never felt any pressure from our parents. Dad used to constantly remind us that ‘there’s a girl in Long Island who’s doing more wallball than you are’ in his messaging that hard work pays off, but for us lacrosse has never felt like a chore.”
“And, believe me, we have fun!” Nicole exclaims.
“UNC has a ton of athletes who all hang-out together, and there are houses for men’s and women’s lacrosse players, so there’s always a group of friends around. …During Covid the Team wasn’t able to see each other as much due to close contact rules, and we suffered a painful loss in the 2021 Final Four after being undefeated all season. In 2022, Coach Levy called a team meeting and declared that camaraderie was crucial to the success of the team and instructed that we get back to socializing. I treasure all the emotional support - and even the goodhearted feedback - I’ve received from teammates over the years! …I feel like everything that’s happened for us with lacrosse has been one big payoff for working hard and doing things right, and I have great memories - and especially around our winning the National Championship together - that will never fade.”
When the girls were recently all in Darien together, they held a clinic for about 100 kids to benefit Unite For Africa. Ashley explains, “Our brother, Brett, is a senior in high school and has already built a substantial record of social service, and is currently serving as an EMT in Westport, and as a Volunteer Firefighter for the Darien Fire House, and now as the President of Unite For Africa at Greens Farms - a charity that addresses the spiritual, physical, social and economic needs of people in Africa. We were happy to do what we could to raise some money for the cause. …A few of the girls came wearing UNC jerseys with HUMPHREY on the back! And one little girl brought us a three-page letter about how she was planning her future in our footsteps! …Then there was Dad in the car on the way home, telling us to ‘level down’ like he always used to do, and not to let being ‘idolized’ get to our heads.”
Nicole quips, ”I wouldn’t trade our experience for the world, but our family hasn’t been skiing since I was in 8th grade - and so we’ve already planned a trip for this winter! …And I feel like - particularly since we’re both working in finance - Ashley and I both need to take up golf! …And maybe get into tennis, or any other low impact sports!”
