How 3 Sisters Reunited and Helped UNC Win the Lacrosse National Championship: ‘There Are Silver Linings in Everything’ (Exclusive)

It was a winding road, but three sisters from Connecticut are NCAA lacrosse champions — and they did it together!

Nicole, Ashley and Chloe Humphrey led the University of North Carolina to an undefeated season and won the national title on May 25. Now, they tell PEOPLE in an exclusive interview that they couldn’t have done it without one another.

“There’s always a silver lining to everything, and that I think our story is really great for young players and just going through adversity, it’s like there’s always something better that comes out of all of these obstacles,” Nicole tells PEOPLE. 

The oldest of the three, Nicole originally started her four years of undergrad for UNC before transferring to the University of Southern California where she hoped to play her final year of eligibility.

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But an injury sidelined her — and brought her back a year later to UNC where she joined her younger sisters.

Middle sister Ashley, 22, began her lacrosse career at Stanford before transferring to UNC last season.

“I definitely wanted to do something different,” Ashley tells PEOPLE. “I think I really wanted to push myself academically and see how far it could get me. I committed when I was a freshman in high school, so I was still really young and I visited, I loved Palo Alto, I loved Stanford. I am so grateful for my time there.”

But the attacker found herself drawn to UNC, where she reunited with Nicole — and then little sis Chloe, 20, came on the scene.

The top recruit in the 2023 class, Chloe had a freshman year for the record books, one season after redshirting her first year after a stress reaction foot injury.

The circuitous route to their reunion on the lacrosse field in Chapel Hill had the sisters reminiscing about their childhood in Darien, Conn., where they first aspired to greatness — following in the footsteps of the mother who played lacrosse at Dartmouth College.

And memories of playing inside the house — to their parents’ chagrin — are part of their own personal highlight reels.

“We had glass doors in our living room,” Nicole recalls. “Yeah, there are a few broken lamps, a lot of holes in the wall in the garage.”

As they collectively honed their skills, the trio couldn’t help but excel thanks to their athletic family. Dad John was a hall of fame basketball player at Middlebury College and their grandfather, John Otis, played baseball at Dartmouth and was drafted by the Detroit Tigers.

Now, with Nicole and Ashley’s eligibility over, they say they are looking forward to watching Chloe continue to dominate the sport.

“I’m sad we only got one year together,” Chloe says. “But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Chloe adds, “To be able to share the season with them was nothing I could have ever imagined. I mean, the way everything worked out, it just showed me, in our family, everything happens for a reason. There are silver linings in everything, and it’s been such an honor to play alongside them. To be able to then hoist the national championship trophy beside both of them was just an unreal feeling.”