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ACC Has Strong Presence on U.S. Under-21 Women's Soccer Team
July 29, 1999 GREENSBORO, N.C. - On the heels of the historic victory for the U.S. Women's National Team in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, the U.S. Under-21 Women's National Team travels to Iceland Wednesday to compete in the Nordic Cup. Held annually in Northern Europe, the Nordic Cup brings together the world's top Under-21 Women's National Teams for the most important women's youth tournament for this age group. The team features four players from UNC and one from Clemson. The team is coached by Lauren Gregg, who graduated from Carolina in 1983 and was head coach at Virginia from 1985-95. Chris Ducar serves as Goalkeeper Coach. Ducar currently holds the same position at UNC. The eight competing teams are divided into two groups of four, with first-round play consisting of round-robin matches within the group. The group winners will then play for the championship. The two second-place group finishers will play for third place, the third-place finishers for fifth and the last-place finishers will play for seventh. "Although this is one the youngest teams we've brought to the Nordic Cup, it's a team that promises to uphold the tradition of excellence of our women's national team program," said Gregg. "They have prepared hard all year and have had great success to date. We have some wonderful attacking personalities." The grueling schedule features four matches in seven days for all eight teams, with the group winners meeting for the championship on Aug. 8 at the National Stadium in Laugardalsvollur. Gregg took over the U-21 program in 1997 with the team having won just once in five previous trips to the tournament. The USA won the Nordic Cup that year in Denmark, defeating arch-rival Norway in the championship game, 1-0, in sudden death overtime on a goal from Jen Streiffer. The USA fell to Norway last year in Holland, 2-1, with 1999 Women's World Cup star Cindy Parlow tallying for the USA, and will be looking to recapture the title. The USA opens the tournament vs. Finland on Aug. 2 in Stjornvollur (Kickoff 2:30 p.m. Local Time/9:30 a.m. ET). The USA will then play Germany on Aug. 4 in Borgarnesvollur (4:30 p.m. Local Time/11:30 a.m. ET) and finish first-round play against on Aug. 6 against Denmark in Fjolnisvollur (2:30 p.m. Local Time/9:30 a.m. ET). The American U-21s defeated both Germany and Denmark by a goal on a two-game tour of Europe earlier this year. The USA will play in Group 2 while Group 1 features host Iceland, Australia, Sweden and Norway. Of the 18-players on the roster, four are from University of North Carolina and three are from Notre Dame while Santa Clara and the University of Portland have two players each. Players born after Jan. 1, 1978, are eligible for this year's Nordic Cup Team, however, each team is allowed two "overage" spots on its roster for players born after Jan. 1, 1975. Gregg used just one of her overage slots, naming U-21 veteran and team captain Michelle French (University of Portland/Kent, Wash.) to the squad. The roster includes four players who have not yet entered college in Lauren Orlandos (Mission Viejo Mirage/Lake Forest, Calif.) who will attend the University of Portland next fall, and Susan Bush (Houston Challenege, Houston, Tex.), who will attend North Carolina. Veronica Zepeda (Claremont Stars/Riverside, Calif.) and Aleisha Cramer (Colorado Rush/Lakewood, Colo.) will be seniors in high school this fall. Gregg will look to Bush, UNC's Meredith Florance (Dallas, Tex.) and Clemson's Beth Keller (Hilton Head, S.C.) for offensive punch, but a talented midfield may make the difference. Rising star Aly Wagner (Santa Clara/San Jose, Calif.), who like Bush is fresh off a five-month residency camp with the full national team, will play with Cramer, the nation's top senior, as well as 1996 Olympic team alternate Streiffer and U-21 veteran Jen Grubb (Notre Dame/Hoffman Est., Ill.) The defense will be anchored by French, Stanford star Ronnie Fair (Los Altos, Calif.) and Santa Clara standout Danielle Slaton (San Jose, Calif.) Thirteen of the 18 members of the 1999 Nordic Cup Team have caps with the full national team, but Grubb leads the way with 12, Wagner has six and no other players has more than three. Just seven players from last year's Nordic Cup team are on this year's squad: Grubb, French, Lakeysia Beene (Notre Dame/Gold River, Calif), Fair, Streiffer, Bush and Raven McDonald (North Carolina/Benton, N.C.). "It's important that all of our women's national teams strive for the same standard," added Gregg, who has served as an assistant coach on all three U.S. world championship teams. "These players are clearly instrumental in our quest to win in the future. You will see some of them compete for residency spots and positions on our Olympic roster, and an even larger number on our next Women's World Cup team." Following is the U.S. roster for the 1999 Nordic Cup and the tournament groupings and schedule: United States Under-21 Women's National Team
No. Pos. Player Ht. Wt. Hometown College/Club 1 GK Beene, Lakesia 5'8" 135 Sacramento, CA UND 18 GK Mullinix, Siri 5'8" 145 Greensboro, NC UNC 3 D Fair, Ronnie 5'3" 125 Los Altos, CA Stanford 11 D French, Michelle 5'4" 135 Kent, WA Portland 16 D Kamholz, Kalli 5'8" 155 Indian Harbor Bch, FL Vanderbilt 13 D Mitts, Heather 5'5" 120 Cincinnati, OH Florida 8 D Orlandos, Lauren 5'10" 145 Lake Forest, CA Mirage 15 D Slaton, Danielle 5'6" 140 San Jose, CA Santa Clara 10 M Cramer, Aleisha 5'9" 125 Lakewood, CO Colo. Rush 6 M Grubb, Jen 5'7" 145 Hoffman Estates, IL UND 12 M Streiffer, Jen 5'6" 135 Baton Rouge, LA UND 7 M Wagner, Aly 5'5" 120 San Jose, CA SCU 17 F Bush, Susan 5'4" 120 Houston, TX UNC 4 F Florance, Meredith 5'7" 140 Dallas, TX UNC 14 F Keller, Beth 5'5" 130 Hilton Head, SC Clemson 9 F James, Venus 5'6" 130 Oakland, CA UCLA 5 F McDonald, Raven 5'7" 125 Benton, NC UNC 2 F Zepeda, Veronica 5'0" 100 Riverside, CA Stars 1999 NORDIC CUP SCHEDULE August 2 Local ET Time Site Australia v. Sweden 2:30 p.m. 9:30 a.m. Hlidarendi Iceland v. Norway 4:30 p.m. 11:30 a.m. Hlidarendi USA v. Finland 2:30 p.m. 9:30 a.m. Stjornuvollur Germany v. Denmark 4:30 p.m. 11:30 a.m. Stjornuvollur
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