April 11, 2006

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Former Wake Forest field hockey standouts Kelly Doton and Claire Laubach have been chosen as members of the World Cup field hockey team that will represent the Untied States in the World Cup Qualifying Tournament, April 25-May 6 in Rome, Italy.

The top five teams at the 10-team qualifying tournament will join Argentina, Australia, Germany, India, The Netherlands, South Africa and host Spain at the Women's World Cup, Sept. 27-Oct. 7 in Madrid.

Doton, the 2004 National Player of the Year and Honda Award winner, played for the Demon Deacons from 2000-03. The 2002 and 2003 ACC Player of the Year, Doton was a three-time All-American and has played for the US National Team since 2001. Laubach, who became a member of Team USA in 2005, was a first team All-American and a two-time All-Region selection.

"The team has made a lot of progress since coming together in New Zealand (in a 2005 test series)," said USA head coach Lee Bodimeade. "It's now a matter of building on those improvements so we can consistently beat the nations that we come up against and enable us to qualify for the World Cup."

The U.S. team for the qualifier includes World Cup veterans Kate Barber (West Chester, Pa., 1998, 2002) and Carrie Lingo (Rehoboth Beach, Va, 2002) as well as 16 players seeking their first World Cup appearances: Kayla Bashore (Shoemakersville, Pa.), Rachel Dawson (Berlin, N.J.), Kelly Doton (Greenfield, Mass.), April Fronzoni (Larksville, Pa.), Kristi Gannon (Escondido, Calif.), Kelsey Keeran (Columbus, Ohio), Robyn Kenney (Readington, N.J.), Claire Laubach (Bristow, Va.), Melissa Leonetti (Erdenheim, Pa.), Angie Loy (Loysville, Pa.), Lauren Powley (Mountain Top, Pa.), Dina Rizzo (Walpole, Mass.), Sara Silvetti (Wapwallopen, Pa.), Tiffany Snow (Escondido, Calif.) and goalkeepers Amy Tran (Grantville, Pa.) and Barb Weinberg (Louisville, Ky.).

Currently 12th in the world rankings, the USA enters the qualifier as the No. 6 seed behind top-seed China, No. 2 New Zealand, No. 3, No. 4 Japan and No. 5 England. The USA will open play against Ireland on April 25 and will compete in a Pool B field that also includes New Zealand, Korea, Azerbaijan and host Italy.

The USA will leave for the qualifier on April 17 with a stop over in The Netherlands for some training games against the club team Klein Zwitzerland and the Dutch U23 squad before continuing on to Rome.

The USA has appeared in the World Cup in each of the last six editions of the quadrennial event dating back to 1983.