Connect 3: Humphrey Sisters Helping Lead No.1 UNC's Revenge Tour

All three sisters played for Lisa Lindley at Darien, a high school juggernaut with 19 Connecticut state titles. In 2019, they became the first trio of sisters to play for three separate teams at the Under Armour All-America Games. Fresh off eighth-grade graduation, Chloe Humphrey was named MVP of her division, Ashley Humphrey was on her division’s all-tournament team and Nicole Humphrey was doing one final victory lap before she booked it to North Carolina. Today, all three sisters are in Chapel Hill, but their journeys there were hardly charmed. There are no silver spoons in this story. But there is a silver lining that required comebacks from a pandemic, a pair of moves to California and injuries that upended the 2024 season for all three sisters (and Carolina). If the Humphrey home in Darien’s walls could talk, they would likely tell you that lacrosse is their love language and perhaps help you locate missing balls. “They love to play catch in our living room. Very hazardous,” said Sarah Humphrey, their mother. “We also have a setup in our backyard that has a goal. These girls are not the best at tracking their ball after they've lost it, so we just keep buying new buckets of balls. My husband and I laugh thinking about the next people who will buy our house, because it's literally a graveyard of lacrosse balls throughout this property. They're just going to think, ‘What on earth went on here?’”

The story starts with Ashley, the middle of the three sisters, who is a year younger than Nicole. She picked up a stick at 8 years old and quickly fell for the sport. Nicole was committed to gymnastics but got into lacrosse in junior high, getting cut from her club team while Ashley made the top team. “She was helpful and encouraging as I made the switch,” Nicole Humphrey said. “It lit a fire under me competitively. It was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool. I think I can do this, too. Let’s see how far we can go with this.’” The oldest Humphrey sister transferred from Greens Farms Academy to Darien to see it through. Nicole wore No. 1. Ashley wore No. 2. When they teamed up for a goal, the public address announcer boomed, “Humphrey-to-Humphrey connection.” They won a pair of state championships together before Nicole — who shed her “late bloomer” status rather early to become a USA Lacrosse All-American and get recruited by the top college programs — left for Chapel Hill. All the while, Chloe Humphrey was watching, learning. Sometimes from behind a window. “I remember her being so small with this lacrosse stick watching Ashley and me outside,” Nicole Humphrey said. “She would be watching us do these drills. Then she would go out and do them by herself.”

Ashley Humphrey, however, was dead set on coming east even as her older sister went west. “Stanford had a lot of promise and was getting stronger every year, but it didn’t look like they’d make a final four run during her years,” Sarah Humphrey said. “If she wanted to play in the final four, she’d need to make a move.” That move was to North Carolina, where she knew she could unite with Chloe, at least. But the plot twists continued. On the first day of practice at USC, Nicole Humphrey tore the Lisfranc ligament in her foot. “It was traumatic,” she said. “It was a hard and weird situation, especially after the pandemic. It was like, ‘What else could go wrong?’” Bookmark that for a second. Ashley Humphrey, who made her way to Chapel Hill that winter after missing fall so she could finish her degree at Stanford, had a more glass-half-full approach. She sees plays unfold before they happen. “I called my mom and was like, ‘Oh my God, can Nicole come back to Carolina?’” Ashley Humphrey said. “It was like the stars aligned.”