Brittany Bock (upper left) and Carrie Dew (upper right) are set to continue Notre Dame's trend of producing elite youth soccer players, as members of the U.S. Under-20 National Team.

Brittany Bock And Carrie Dew Named To U.S. Team That Will Compete In Russia At 2006 Under-20 World Championship

June 9, 2006

Two members of the Notre Dame women’s soccer team – midfielder Brittany Bock (Naperville, Ill.) and defender Carrie Dew (Encinitas, Calif.)- officially have been named to the United States Under-20 National Team that will compete at the Under-20 World Championship early in the fall of 2006 (Aug. 17-Sept. 3, in Russia). USA Soccer formally announced the 21-player roster this week, although Bock and Dew had been mainstays with the team throughout the 2006 spring semester.

(Note: the Notre Dame players currently are preparing for a training camp with the U.S. team but will be checking in at und.com throughout the summer to provide Irish fans with an up-close look at their national-team experience – all the way through the tournament in Russia before they rejoin the Irish early in the 2006 season).

Bock and Dew both received all-BIG EAST Conference honors during their freshman seasons with the Irish in the fall of 2005 and will be key members of the 2006 squad that is set to return eight starters from the ’05 team. In addition to Bock and Dew, a pair of players who are entering their junior seasons with the Irish – forward Amanda Cinalli and midfielder/defender Ashley Jones – were among the 47 players who participated in training and evaluation sessions during the past few months as the USA coaching staff finalized its 21-player roster for the upcoming Under-20 World Championship.

Notre Dame joins UCLA, Virginia and Santa Clara as the four schools with multiple veteran players who were named to the U.S. Under-20 team. Two incoming North Carolina players also are members of the team while the Under-20 roster includes one veteran player from the University of Portland and another who is set to join the Pilots as a transfer. The above six schools account for more than two-thirds of the U.S. roster (15 of 21), with the other six playing for Florida State, Louisville, Penn State, Stanford, Texas and USC.

The 16-nation tournament in Russia will serve as the third FIFA world championship ever held for youth women’s soccer, with the tournament in Russia marking the first time that the competition will be played as an Under-20 event. The USA won the first FIFA Under-19 Women’s World Championship in 2002 (in Canada) and finished third at the 2004 U-19 tournament in Thailand.

Two former Notre Dame All-Americans – forward Katie Thorlakson and defender Candace Chapman – were key members of Canada’s Under-19 team that lost to the the U.S. in overtime of the 2002 Under-19 World Championship game (their fellow Notre Dame 2005 senior Annie Schefter was a member of that U.S. team but did not play due to an injury suffered weeks before the inaugural tournament).

Another 2005 All-America standout at Notre Dame, forward Kerri Hanks, was one of the youngest members of the 2002 U.S. U-19 team and then was the top scorer for the U.S. U-19s in 2004. Hanks first joined the Irish in the spring of 2005 and is set to embark on her second full college season this fall.

For the 2006 tournament, the USA will play in Group D versus first-time world championship participant DR Congo, plus Argentina and France. Players must be born on or after Jan. 1, 1986, to be eligible for this year’s U-20 World Championship.

“Each player has shown high levels of the unique qualities needed for their positions, and that is one of the main reasons they were selected,” said Tim Schulz, head coach of the U.S. Under-20 team. “It also was important to have diversity in our talent and I think we accomplished that.”

The 21-player roster includes six veterans who were teammates of Hanks on the 2004 team that played in Thailanbd: USC forward Amy Rodriguez, Virginia forward Jess Rostedt, Portland defender Stephanie Lopez, Texas defender Stephanie Logterman, goalkeeper Kelsey Davis (UC Davis transfer, headed to Portland) and Virginia defender Nikki Krzysik,

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Brittany Bock (lower left) and Carrie Dew (upper right) had a busy 2006 spring semester while emerging as two of the top players for the U.S. Under-20 team.

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All of the USA’s midfielders will be playing in their first world championship. Bock is expected to be joined in a central midfielder role by Santa Clara’s Amanda Poach and Penn State’s Allie Long while the flank midfield options include UCLA’s Danesha Adams, UCLA’s Tina DiMartino and UNC incoming players Tobin Heath and Casey Nogueira – with Santa Clara’s Jordan Angeli capable of playing forward, midfield or defender with Team USA.

Lopez, Logterman and Krzysik are the veteran members of a back line unit that also includes Dew, Florida State’s Sarah Wagenfuhr and UCLA’s Erin Hardy. Rodriguez and Rostedt are joined on the attack by UCLA newcomer Lauren Cheney and Stanford incoming freshman Kelley O’Hara while the team’s goalkeepers include the 5-foot-11 Davis, 5-7 Val Henderson of UCLA and 5-10 Joanna Haig of BIG EAST Conference team Louisville (she is a transfer from Iowa State).

Most of the 21 players are entering their sophomore or junior years of college, except for incoming freshmen Cheney, O’Hara, Heath and Nogueira. Dew is one of six California natives on the team, with the 15 other players hailing from 11 different states.

So far in 2006, the U.S. team has competed in nine events and will have four more camps/events before the World Championship, with a training camp at the Home Depot Center representing the next event (June 11-18).

“Continuity is very important in picking a team. Talent is vitally important, but passion and team chemistry are equally as important, if not moreso,” said Schulz. “We wanted to pick the roster early so we could start working with the group … and spend the most amount of time possible molding them into a team.”

The 2006 FIFA World Championship will be contested between 16 teams: host Russia, Australia, China and North Korea from Asia; Nigeria and DR Congo from Africa; the USA, Mexico and Canada from CONCACAF; Brazil and Argentina from South America; France, Switzerland, Germany and Finland from Europe; and New Zealand from Oceania.

The 2006 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Championship will take place at four stadiums in Moscow (Dynamo, Lokomotiv, Shchelkovo and Torpedo) and at Petrovsky in St. Petersburg

Dew – who has made a big impact with the U.S. due to her rugged play, strong marking skills and dominance in the air – started three matches at the CONCACAF U-20 Final Women’s Qualifying Tournament in Mexico. She scored her first U-20 goal against El Salvador at the qualifying tournament but was sent off late in the first half of the championship game (after accumulating two yellow cards) and will be suspended for the opening match of the World Championship.

Bock has made a name for herself on the U.S. team as one of the hardest tacklers in the world for her age group, coupling that skill with her canon shot, precision dribbling and set-up abilities. She scored two spectacular goals for the USA in the semifinal of the qualifying tournament against Mexico, one off a brilliant bending free kick and another off a diving header (a common sight during her freshman season with the Irish).

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Carrie Dew played more minutes than any other Notre Dame player during the 2005 season.

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UNITED STATES UNDER-20 WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM ROSTER
(2006 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Championship – Russia; Aug. 17 – Sept. 3, 2006)
Player … Pos. … Hometown/School … Caps/Goals (U-19 and U-20)
Adams, Danesha … M … Shaker Heights, OH/UCLA … 10/3
Angeli, Jordan … M … Lakewood, CO/Santa Clara … 10/3
Bock, Brittany … M … Naperville, IL/Notre Dame … 10/3
Cheney, Lauren … F … Indianapolis, IN/UCLA … 8/6
Davis, Kelsey … G … Thousand Oaks, CA/Portland … 11
Dew, Carrie … D … Encinitas, CA/Notre Dame … 9/1
DiMartino, Tina … M … Massapequa Park, NY/UCLA … 10/1
Haig, Joanna … G … Inver Grove Hts., MN/Louisville … 0/0
Hardy, Erin … D … Costa Mesa, CA/UCLA … 0/0
Heath, Tobin … M … Basking Ridge, NJ/UNC … 6/1
Henderson, Val … G … Orinda, CA/UCLA … 5
Krzysik, Nikki … D … Clifton, NJ/Virginia … 21/0
Logterman, Stephanie … D … Austin, TX/Texas … 30/0
Long, Allie … M … East Northport, NY/Penn State … 9/2
Lopez, Stephanie … D … Elk Grove, CA/Portland … 25/0
Nogueira, Casey … M … Cedarburg, WI/UNC … 0/0
O’Hara, Kelley … F … Fayetteville, GA/Stanford … 8/3
Poach, Amanda … M … Bowie, MD/Santa Clara … 11/1
Rodriguez, Amy … F … Lake Forest, CA/USC … 11/6
Rostedt, Jessica … F … Kent, OH/Virginia … 17/7
Wagenfuhr, Sarah … D … Colorado Springs, CO/Florida State … 9/0

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Brittany Bock – who has plenty of past playing experience with various USA national youth teams – combines with Carrie Dew to make Notre Dame one of four schools with multiple veterans on the current U-20 squad.

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GOALKEEPERS (3): Kelsey Davis, Joanna Haig, Val Henderson

DEFENDERS (6): Carrie Dew, Erin Hardy, Nikki Kryzsik, Stephanie Logterman, Stephanie Lopez, Sara Wagenfuhr

MIDFIELDERS (8): Jordan Angeli, Danesha Adams, Brittany Bock, Tina DiMartino, Tobin Heath, Allie Long, Casey Nogueira, Amanda Poach

FORWARDS (4): Lauren Cheney, Amy Rodriguez, Kelley O’Hara, Jessica Rostedt

Coaching Staff: head coach Tim Schulz (Lakewood, CO), assistant coach Gregg Murphy (Los Angeles), goalkeeper coach Steve Branz (Houston)