University of North Carolina Athletics
Dawson, Four UNC Alums To Play In World Cup Qualifier
April 11, 2006 | Field Hockey
April 11, 2006
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- North Carolina rising senior Rachel Dawson and four former Tar Heel field hockey players have been named to the 18-member U.S. roster for the World Cup Qualifying Tournament, scheduled for April 25-May 6 in Rome, Italy.
UNC alums Kate Barber and Carrie Lingo are the only players on the roster with previous World Cup experience. Bidding for their first World Cup appearances are Kelsey Keeran, Amy Tran and Dawson, the only player with remaining college eligibility to be selected for the team.
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.
"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."
In addition to Barber, Dawson, Keeran, Lingo and Tran, the squad includes Kayla Bashore (Indiana), Kelly Doton (Wake Forest), April Fronzoni (Michigan), Kristi Gannon (Michigan), Robyn Kenney (Boston Univ.), Claire Laubach (Wake Forest), Melissa Leonetti (Old Dominion), Angie Loy (Old Dominion), Lauren Powley (Maryland), Dina Rizzo (Maryland), Sara Silvetti (Maryland), Tiffany Snow (Old Dominion) and Barb Weinberg (Louisville).
Currently 12th in the world rankings, the USA enters the qualifier as the No. 6 seed behind top-seeded China, No. 2 New Zealand, No. 3 Korea, No. 4 Japan and No. 5 England. The USA will open play on April 25 against Ireland and will compete in a Pool B field that also includes New Zealand, Korea, Azerbaijan and host Italy.
The U.S. team will depart for the qualifier on April 17 with a stopover in The Netherlands for training games against the club team Klein Zwitzerland and the Dutch U23 squad before continuing on to Rome.
The U.S. has appeared in the World Cup in each of the last six editions of the quadrennial event dating back to 1983.
