University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Help National Team To World Cup Berth
June 25, 2002 | Field Hockey
June 25, 2002
CANNOCK, England--The U.S. women's field hockey national team, which includes five current or former North Carolina players, beat India 3-1 Tuesday to earn a spot in the sport's World Cup.
India and the U.S. tied 1-1 in each of the first two meetings of the three-game series, held at Cannock Hockey Club in Cannock, Staffordshire, England. In the decisive match, the U.S. team trailed 1-0 at halftime but scored three times in the second period to come away with the win. Tracey Fuchs, the U.S. captain, tied the score on a penalty stroke in the first minute of the second half. Two minutes later, Kelli Gannon scored the winning goal from the field. With 19 minutes remaining in the game, Fuchs added another goal on a penalty corner.
Tar Heel senior Carrie Lingo started the game for the U.S., as did former Carolina players Kate Barber, Kristen McCann and Peggy Storrar. Also on the 18-player roster is Amy Tran, a rising senior at North Carolina who is Storrar's backup at goalkeeper.
The World Cup Qualifying Tournament was held in France last September, but the U.S. was unable to travel to the competition following the terrorist attacks. The FIH granted the U.S. the opportunity to qualify in a series against the tournament's seventh-place finisher, which turned out to be India. The U.S.-India series was scheduled for June 3-5 in New Delhi, but was rescheduled and moved to a neutral site after a U.S. State Department warning forced the American team to return home from India before the first game.
The World Cup will be played Nov. 28-Dec. 8 in Perth, Australia. The U.S., which will make its sixth consecutive appearance in the field, is the No. 11 seed and will play in Pool B, along with The Netherlands, Australia, Spain, England, South Africa, Japan and Ireland. Teams in Pool A are Argentina, China, New Zealand, Korea, Germany, Russia, Ukraine and Scotland. The U.S. squad finished eighth in 1998 and made its best showing, a bronze medal, in 1994.
