University of North Carolina Athletics
Heinrichs Announces 30-Player Olympic Residency Camp Roster
March 29, 2000 | Women's Soccer
March 29, 2000
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - U.S. Women's National Team Head Coach April Heinrichs has named the 30-player Olympic residency camp roster from which the 18-player 2000 Olympic roster will likely be chosen. The USA will take part in the second Olympic women's soccer tournament from Sept. 14-28 in Australia, traveling Down Under to defend the gold medal it won in Atlanta in 1996.
The 30 players will form the pool from which Heinrichs will select rosters for the approximately 20-22 matches that the USA will play before the Olympics. That run will begin on April 3rd as Heinrichs brings 26 of those players to Charlotte, N.C. to begin training for the USA's April 8th clash with Iceland at Ericsson Stadium (Kickoff 7:30 ET/TV - 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN2). Tickets are priced at $15-$28 and can be purchased by calling TicketMaster at 704/522-6500. For more information and group tickets, call 336/856-7529.
The Charlotte training camp will be the beginning of the USA's residency camp period as the stars of the Women's World Cup, and the future, come to North Carolina. Following the Iceland match, the USA will have a week off and then move to San Diego and the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., where the team will be based from mid-April until June. The team will begin training at the OTC on April 17, but due to an extensive travel and competition schedule, the U.S. team will spend a total of approximately five weeks training in San Diego.
The residency camp roster features 15 players from the 1999 Women's World Cup championship team, including all 11 starters from the historic Women's World Cup Final match. The -player pool features four goalkeepers, eight defenders, 12 midfielders and six forwards. Along with the core of veterans, eight of whom have played 135 or more international matches, Heinrichs has mixed in a group of wonderfully talented young players as a full half of the residency roster has 11 caps or less. Young defenders include 17-year-old Nandi Pryce who made her debut with the USA at the Australia Cup in January and former Under-21 captain Michelle French, who was a part of the Women's World Cup residency camp last year. Heinrichs also chose 19-year-old left-sided defender Danielle Slaton, who proved a solid option at outside fullback by playing well in all four Algarve Cup matches.
"It was difficult to make the final decisions regarding residency, because every player brought to Portugal played the best soccer I've seen in the year 2000," said Heinrichs. "This is a good problem for a coach to have. I'm very much looking forward to working with the residency group so that we can focus our energy and attention on these 30 players which are the ones that will be fighting for a position on the Olympic Team."
Heinrichs will bring a cadre of young midfielders to the residency camp period, including the left-footed Jena Kluegel of the University of North Carolina, who made her debut in February against Norway. Leading the way for the youthful midfield corp is Aly Wagner, one of the most experienced of the young players with 11 caps, a member of the Women's World Cup residency camp and one of the final cuts from the 1999 Women's World Cup Team. Heinrichs has included three other 17-year-olds in residency camp as Aleisha Cramer, Veronica Zepeda and Sara Randolph will train with the U.S. team when the squad is in San Diego, but will play most of their matches with the U.S. Under-21 Team. Cramer, the nation's top high school player, has represented the USA at the U-16, U-18, U-21 and full national team levels. Zepeda, a highly skilled attacking midfielder, scored her first ever goal during the Australia Cup in January. Randolph, who just turned 17 last month, was the youngest of 39 players at the February training camp in Florida, but made an impression and will get the chance to train alongside the best in the world. At striker, 17-year-old Alyssa Ramsey, 18-year old Christy Welsh and 19-year Susan Bush of the University of North Carolina (the youngest of the 1999 Women's World Cup residency camp players and now a veteran amongst the youth), will vie for minutes on a U.S. forward line that has been one of the world's most potent for years.
Women's World Cup hero Briana Scurry will also rejoin the team after missing the Algarve Cup with a leg injury. Scurry is at 99 caps, and in Charlotte, will likely become the 11th member and first goalkeeper in the USA's 100-cap club. A trio of talented young goalkeepers will be pushing Scurry for the starting sport in the nets. Carolina graduate Siri Mullinix '99, a member of the Women's World Cup residency camp who had a stellar match in helping the USA to the Algarve Cup title earlier this month will be joined by a pair of powerful young goalkeepers in Jenni Branam, a UNC freshman in 1999, and Hope Solo, both veterans of the USA's youth national teams.
Of the 30 players invited to residency camp, 26 will come to Charlotte, minus Cramer, Zepeda and Randolph, as well as Michelle Akers, who suffered a dislocated shoulder while training and will undergo an MRI later this week to determine if she will need surgery.
This will be the USA's second trip to Ericsson Stadium after destroying Japan, 9-0, there last year in a Women's World Cup tune-up. Tiffeny Milbrett tied a U.S. record for points in a game, scoring four times with two assists, on a chilly night in front of 10,119 fans who braved sub-freezing temperatures.
U.S. Head Coach April Heinrichs, herself a former All-American at the University of North Carolina, will bring 10 players to Charlotte with North Carolina ties, including Ramsey, who stars for the Charlotte Soccer Club and may get the chance to play in front of her hometown fans. Ramsey has signed a letter of intent to play at UNC next fall. Mullinix hails from Greensboro, N.C. and is one of nine present or former Tar Heels on the pool roster for Charlotte. Heinrichs will choose 18 players from the 26 to be eligible to face Iceland.
The USA has played Iceland just twice in its history, both games coming in 1998, when the Americans registered a 6-0 victory in Indianapolis, but then battled the game Icelanders for a 1-0 win in Bethlehem, Pa.
2000 U.S Women's National Soccer Team Olympic Residency Camp Roster
No. Player Pos.Ht. Wt. DOB Hometown College Caps/Goals
1 Scurry, Briana G 5-8 145 9/7/71 Dayton, Minn. UMass 99
2 Fair, Lorrie M 5-3 130 8/5/78 Los Altos, Ca. North Carolina 57/2
3 Pearce, Christie D 5-6 140 6/24/75 Point Pleasant, N.J. Monmouth 58/2
4 Overbeck, Carla D 5-7 125 5/9/68 Chapel Hill, N.C.North Carolina 161/7
5 Serlenga, Nikki M 5-7 130 6/20/78 San Diego, Calif.Santa Clara 2/1
6 Chastain, BrandiD 5-7 135 7/21/68 San Jose, Ca. Santa Clara 111/22
7 Whalen, Sara M 5-5 130 4/28/76 Greenlawn, N.Y. UConn 47/3
8 MacMillan, Shannon M 5-5 135 10/7/74 Escondido, Ca. Portland 95/24
9 Hamm, Mia F 5-5 130 3/17/72 Chapel Hill, N.C.North Carolina 187/116
10 Akers, Michelle M 5-10150 2/1/66 Orlando, Fla. Central Florida 147/104
11 Foudy, Julie M 5-6 130 1/23/71 Mission Viejo, Ca. Stanford 171/33
12 Parlow, Cindy F 5-11145 5/08/78 Memphis, Tenn. North Carolina 71/29
13 Lilly, Kristine M 5-4 125 7/22/71 Wilton, Conn. North Carolina 196/82
14 Fawcett, Joy D 5-5 130 2/8/68 Huntington Beach, Ca. UCB 157/22
15 Pryce, Nandi D 5-10140 5/30/82 Casselberry, Fla. CF United 5/0
16 Milbrett, Tiffeny F 5-2 130 10/23/72Portland, Ore. Portland 135/68
17 French, Michelle D 5-4 135 1/27/77 Kent, Wash. Portland 7/0
18 Solo, Hope G 5-9 140 7/30/81 Richland, WA Washington 0
19 Slaton, Danielle D 5-6 135 6/10/80 San Jose, Ca. Santa Clara 9/1
20 Sobrero, Kate D 5-7 135 8/23/76 Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Notre Dame 37/0
21 Kluegel, Jena M 5-3 125 11/2/79 Mahtomedi, Minn. North Carolina 1/0
22 Welsh, Christie F 5-10155 2/27/81 Massapequa Park, NY Penn State 6/2
23 Bush, Susan F 5-4 120 11/10/80Houston, Tex. North Carolina 7/1
24 Branam, Jen G 5-7 155 10/08/80Placentia, CA North Carolina 1
25 Wagner, Aly M 5-5 120 8/10/80 San Jose, Ca. Santa Clara 11/2
26 Mullinix, Siri G 5-8 145 5/22/78 Greensboro, N.C.North Carolina 5
27 Ramsey, AlyssaF 5-8 140 9/21/82 Charlotte, N.C. North Carolina 2/0
-- Cramer, Aleisha M 5-10130 7/29/82 Lakewood, CO Colorado Rush 6/0
-- Randolph, Sara M 5-5 127 2/27/83 Cincinnati, Ohio Hammer FC 0/0
-- Zepeda, Veronica M 5-0 100 6/11/82 Riverside, CA Claremont Stars 4/1
