USA announces team for Copa TV Azteca

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, September 19, 2006.- The U.S. Women’s National Team will compete in the Azteca Cup held Sept. 24-29 at Monterrey, Mexico. The event was a late addition to Team USA’s schedule.

The Azteca Cup, in its first year of existence, is an eight-team tournament broken into two pools advancing to the classification round. The U.S. is grouped in Pool B with Canada, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Pool A consists of host Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Peru.

The Team USA roster for the Azteca Cup will be a mixture of players from the senior and junior national teams, along with a couple players who competed and trained with the national team earlier this year.

Elisabeth Bachman, Sarah Drury, Jane Collymore, Sam Tortorello and Katie Olsovsky represent the women’s national training team. Jennifer Doris, Zoe Garrett and Juliann Faucette earned gold medals at the NORCECA Continental Women’s Junior Championship (U-20) while competing on the U.S. Women’s Junior National team in August at Monterrey, Mexico. Erin Virtue and Jamie Dekiewiet, who competed on the USA Tour of Italy and against Poland this past spring, round out the U.S. roster for the Azteca Cup.

Tom Hogan will serve as the head coach for Team USA at the Azteca Cup, while Tom Pingel will have double-duty as assistant coach and team manager. “Jenny” Lang Ping, the U.S. women’s national team coach, will remain in Colorado Springs to train the remainder of the U.S. squad not on the Azteca Cup roster.

Bachman, Drury, Collymore and Tortorello all competed at the Pan American Cup, which the U.S. used to qualify for the 2007 World Grand Prix. Collymore was inserted on the 2006 World Grand Prix roster after the first week of preliminary matches to replace an injured Ogonna Nnamani. Collymore will be the only U.S. player to have competed in the Pan American Cup, World Grand Prix and the Azteca Cup.

“It is important for the players competing at the Azteca Cup to gain game experience,” Lang Ping said. “How well the national team players do in this tournament will help make decisions for the final 12-player World Championship roster. In addition, the high school players on the roster will also have a chance to gain international experience.”