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While many things have changed in women’s collegiate lacrosse since the early 1980s — from sticks and equipment, to rules and uniforms – the one thing that has remained consistent among top collegians is their passion for the game.

The commitment to working hard, perfecting skills, and achieving success was as strong then as it is now. Just ask Karen Trudel Martellucci, a 1985 graduate of the University of Maryland and a three-time collegiate All-American.

“I was obsessed with being the best athlete and player that I could be,” she said. “I loved the sport, and I wanted to be the best.”

That intrinsic drive was the motivation that pushed Trudel (she wasn’t Martellucci yet) into doing all the extra work: the hours of individual shooting practice, the wall ball sessions, the running and conditioning. And all while playing two sports throughout four years of college.

“Her work ethic made her a standout player,” said teammate Andi O’Connor.

As a multi-sport athlete coming out of Conestoga High School in Pennsylvania, Trudel was recruited to Maryland by Hall of Fame coach Sue Tyler to play both field hockey and lacrosse. She arrived in College Park in the fall of 1981 when women’s sports were still governed by the AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women). Resources were limited.

“We had hand-me-down sweats and would get $5 for our meals during road games,” Trudel Martellucci said.

By the time she graduated in May 1985, the same month that she was featured on the cover of Lacrosse Magazine, women’s sports were fully entrenched under the NCAA umbrella. The cover photo, featuring Trudel and Temple’s future Hall of Famer Kathleen Barrett Geiger, was used as part of the magazine’s preview of the 1985 women’s championship.

During Trudel Martellucci’s junior season in 1984, the Terps finished 16-1-1, with their only loss coming against Temple, 6-4, in the national championship game. The Owls had lost in the final to Delaware the previous year and rebounded to capture their first NCAA crown in 1984.

“The Temple versus Maryland games were always exciting and usually effected the rankings heading into the NCAAs,” Geiger said. “In the championship game, the score of 6-4 meant that every ground ball, pass, goalie save and shot was crucial. Both teams were loaded with players who could change the momentum of a game at any time.”

Temple had also beaten Maryland, 3-2, in the final AIAW championship game in 1982.

Trudel Martellucci recalls the physical nature of the Maryland-Temple games during those years, evidenced by the Lacrosse Magazine cover in which Geiger is about to deliver a stick check on the Maryland attacker.

“Those were tough games,” Trudel Martellucci said. “Temple was a very intimidating team.”

Bitter as it was, that loss helped motivate the Terps throughout the 1985 campaign. Maryland opened the season with another loss to its nemesis, losing on the road at Temple, before reeling off 15 straight wins.

“We had a core group that next season that would come to practice early, or stay late, to put in extra work,” Trudel Martellucci recalled. “We were so motivated to have the senior year that we wanted. It consumed us.”

The work paid off as the Terps returned to the final four again. Playing at home, Maryland defeated Penn State 12-11 in overtime in the national semifinal to punch its ticket to the NCAA final at Philadelphia’s historic Franklin Field, a short drive from Trudel’s hometown of Wayne, Pa.

In the championship game against the upstart New Hampshire Wildcats, a heartbreaking 6-5 loss left the Terps just short, once again, from claiming the ultimate prize. The high-powered offense had been held to its lowest goal total of the season.

Trudel Martellucci finished with 48 goals and 70 points that senior season, but dishearteningly, she walked off the field for the final time in her All-American career as the national runner-up, the third time in four seasons.

“That was completely frustrating,” she said. “We just weren’t ready for the defense they had. We still talk about it.”

Ironically, the Terps bookended Trudel Martellucci’s career with national championships, although the two-time team captain missed by one year on each end. Maryland captured the penultimate AIAW championship in 1981, the spring before she arrived in College Park, and then claimed its first NCAA title in 1986, the season after she departed.

Trudel Martellucci’s significant accomplishments during a career in which she came agonizingly close to winning multiple national championships did not go unnoticed. She graduated as No. 2 in career goals (135) and points (185) at Maryland and became just the third player in program history to reach the 100-goal milestone. She was named to the ACC’s 50th Anniversary Women’s Lacrosse Team in 2002, and two years ago, she received her school’s highest individual honor, induction into the University of Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame.

Today, Trudel Martellucci, 57, serves as chief operating officer of GMI Insurance, a family business founded by her father, Norman, in 1980. She draws on some of the same skills and abilities she developed as a lacrosse player to help guide her in the business world.

“One thing I think I took away from my experience at Maryland was learning how to be a leader,” she said. “Being the captain of two teams gave me great experience for being an owner and a boss for running and managing my company.”

Trudel Martellucci has also remained connected to the sport she loves for much of the time since her magazine cover experience. In addition to serving a two-year term as a board member for the US Lacrosse Foundation, she was both a high school and middle school coach in and around her hometown of Valley Forge, Pa., as well as a longtime travel team coach with the Phantastix Club program.

No longer coaching, she and her husband of 32 years, Tom, have now transitioned into becoming primarily lacrosse parents who follow the exploits of their youngest son, Jake, a senior lacrosse player at his mom’s alma mater, Maryland.

“I still have wonderful memories, and looking back, I’m proud of what I accomplished,” she said. “We were one of the best teams. I loved every minute.”