Haverford’s field hockey tradition began even before the women in the first fully-coed class arrived on campus in 1980. One of the College’s three original women's sports, field hockey caught hold right away, attracting large turnouts and recording strong competitive results under head coach Penny Hinckley.

The hockey Fords soon tore up their Philadelphia AIAW opponents and began to show success even in the more competitive Middle Atlantic Conference. The mid-’80s were a time of great strength for the program, featuring fine players like Academic All-America goalie and NCAA Postgraduate Scholar Carol Compton ’84 and Lydia Martin ’85 -- the first woman to win Haverford's Varsity Cup (awarded annually to the best athlete in the college's senior class). The team went 29-8-1 from 1982-84. Haverford field hockey made the MAC playoffs for four straight years from 1988-91 and went 23-6-5 the last two years of that run.

The Fords won the Seven Sisters title in 1990-91 with Emilie Heck ’91 and Andrea Trippitelli ’93 earning successive MVP honors in the tourney. That era also produced Haverford's first field hockey All-America, Tracy Kyger ’93, who made the national select squad's second team in 1992. Becca Morse ’94 and Becca Fenander ’92 were consistent all-conference and all-region picks.

The field hockey program's rich tradition of academic excellence continued in 2002 as eleven Fords - the most from any NCAA Division III institution - were named to the all-academic squad of the National Field Hockey Coaches Association and Jess Bluebond-Langner ’03 was a Rhodes Scholarship nominee.

The Fords experienced a gradual rise in the Centennial standings throughout coach Colleen Quinn Fink's tenure (2006-09) which culminated with Haverford's first appearance in the Centennial playoffs in program history.

The 2010 season, brought the program its first Centennial Player of the Year in Alex Waleko ’11 who also earned second-team Longstretch/National Field Hockey Coaches Association all-American honors. The 2010 Fords, with first-year head coach Jackie Cox at the helm, set a new program high for wins with 14 during a season which ended in the conference tournament championship game.

In 2011, the Fords secured a No. 4 conference seed and advanced to the league semifinals. The team registered its second straight double-digit wins total, a feat not accomplished within the program since the 1990 and 1991 seasons. The Fords also reached the conference tournament for the third consecutive year and had three players selected to the all-conference teams.

The 2012 season saw the Fords finish in sole possession of second place -- their highest finish ever in the Centennial -- in the regular season to qualify for the conference tournament for the fourth consecutive year. The squad tied the single-season record for wins in a season (14) and was ranked in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFCHA) top-20 national poll every week of the season. Mary Hobbs ’13 capped a prolific career with second-team All-American honors as she graduated as the program record holder in career points, goals and assists.

The winning ways continue under Cox who has led the team to double-digit wins in seven of her 10 seasons, with Centennial Conference Tournament appearances during each of those occasions. In addition to the championship game appearances in 2010 and 2012, the Fords have made it to the conference semifinals on five other occasions.