July 9, 2005
Two members of the Notre Dame women’s soccer team – rising senior goalkeeper Erika Bohn and junior-to-be midfielder Jen Buczkowski – have been named to the United States national team that will compete at the upcoming Nordic Cup, an eight-team tournament between teams comprised primarily of players 21 years of age or younger (plus a handful of under-24 exemptions). The weeklong tournament will be held July 20-26 in Sweden, at 10 small venues roughly 150 miles west of Stockholm.
Bohn, Buczkowski and the other 17 members of the Nordic Cup team will assemble to train for three days in New Jersey from July 12-14, highlighted by a scrimmage versus the New Jersey Wildcats (one of the W-League’ top teams) on Wed., July 13, at the Players Development Academy in Zarephath, N.J.
(Note: check back to und.com later in the week for comments from Bohn and Buczkowski and a full update on the many current and former Notre Dame players who have been competing on various elite levels during the past few months.)
Notre Dame joins North Carolina, Portland and UCLA as five schools with multiple under-21 players on the Nordic Cup roster (UNC is the only school with more than two players on the team). The Nordic Cup squad also includes players from Stanford (one u-21, one overage), Arizona State, Rutgers, Texas, USC and Virginia, plus Indianapolis-area high school player Lauren Cheney.
Six previous Notre Dame players – Kate Sobrero, Jen Grubb, Jenny Streiffer, LaKeysia Beene, Meotis Erikson and Candace Chapman – have combined to play in the Nordic Cup 14 times.
The training game vs. the Wildcats should pose a tough challenge prior to the Nordic Cup, as the Wildcats roster includes four U.S. national-team players (Cat Reddick, Lindsay Tarpley, Heather O’Reilly and Christie Welsh), plus Canadian national teamers Christine Latham and Karina LaBlanc and English national Rachel Yankey. Four Wildcats players – Tarpley, O’Reilly, Kendall Fletcher and Manya Makoski – will be playing opposite their summer-league teammates as members of the U.S. Nordic Cup team.
Sweden will be serving as the host country for the third time in the 15-year history of the Nordic Cup, the top competition in the world for under-21 women and the focus of the USA’s oldest youth national team for seven months leading up to the prestigious competition. The United States has won seven Nordic Cup titles (all since 1997) and six straight, defeating Norway once, Germany twice and Sweden three times in the title games.
Bohn and Buczkowski are two of 11 players who will be making their Nordic Cup debuts. The other newcomers to the event include O’Reilly, Pac-10 Conference defenders Rachel Buehler of Stanford and Mary Castelanelli of UCLA, UNC defenders Fletcher and Jessica Maxwell, Portland teammates Stephanie Lopez (defender) and Megan Rapinoe (forward), USC forward Amy Rodriguez and Cheney (who will be a senior at Ben Davis High School in the fall).
UNC midfielder Lori Chalupny and two of the overage players – former Rutgers midfielder Carli Lloyd and former Stanford goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart – will be playing in their fourth Nordic Cup tournament while another overage player (former Texas forward Kelly Wilson Schmedes) joins ASU midfielder Makoski and UCLA midfielder Jill Oakes as third-time Nordic Cup participants.
Bohn is the only under-21 goalkeeper on the Nordic Cup squad, sharing the nets with her former teammate from the Olympic Development Program east region team.
Erika Bohn – overlooked for 2004 conference, region and All-America honors – has carried the momentum from her performance in the NCAA championship game to earn one of two goalkeeper spots on the U.S. Nordic Cup team.
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Tarpley (the team’s fourth and final overage player) and Virginia midfielder Lindsay Tarpley will be looking for their second Nordic Cup title.
Nine of the players on the 2005 Nordic Cup team – Wilson, O’Reilly, Oakes, Tarpley, Chalupny, Huffman, Makoski, Buehler and Fletcher – were members of the U.S. team that won the 2002 Under-19 World Championship. Two current Notre Dame players, rising senior midfielder Annie Schefter and forward Kerri Hanks (who started her ND career last spring) also were members of that ’02 u-19 team (Schefter was injured in the summer of ’02 and unable to play in the World Championship).
Hanks also played alongside three members of the ’05 Nordic Cup team (Lopez, Rodriguez and Rapinoe) on the U.S. team that competed in 2004 Under-19 World Championship. Despite the obvious impact and overlap with the U.S. college season, FIFA opted to hold that ’04 youth championship in Thailand during the fall of ’04 – forcing many of the top young talents in the college game to miss their team’s season (and a semester of school) or make the decision to forego the World Championship (Buczkowski made such a decision in the early summer of ’04, as did her ND teammate and Canadian national Katie Thorlakson later in ’04).
The USA will face a tough challenge in the Nordic Cup’s Group B, taking on Iceland, Denmark and a German side likely to be stocked with players from its 2004 U-19 World Championship-winning team. Group A features Sweden, Norway, Finland and England. The top two finishers in each group will cross over to play for the championship, while the two second-place finishers will play for third, etc.
The USA opens the tournament against Iceland on Wednesday, July 20, in Kristinehamn, and then faces Denmark on Friday, July 22, in Saffle. The U.S. will finish first-round play with a clash against Germany on Sunday, July 24, in Karlskoga. All four placement matches are set for Tuesday, July 26.
Jen Buczkowski – who earned 2004 All-America honors during Notre Dame’s national championship season – has plenty of familiarity with her Nordic Cup teammates, as a former member of the U.S. Under-19 National Team.
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UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis – who had an up-close view of Bohn and Buczkowski’s talent during the 2004 NCAA championship game – will serve as head coach of the Nordic Cup team. Ellis took over the team in May from Greg Ryan, after he was named head coach of the U.S. National Team.
Five previous Notre Dame players have competed with the U.S. at the Nordic Cup (an under-20 event prior to 1999): defenders Sobrero and Grubb, forwards Streiffer and Erikson and goalkeeper Beene. Grubb scored the game-winning goal in sudden-death overtime to defeat Germany in the bronze medal game of the ’96 Nordic Cup. She then went on to start every game for the victorious U.S. squad at the ’97, ’98 and ’99 Nordic Cups, playing every minute of the ’98 and ’99 tournaments (while playing as both a defender and midfielder).
Erikson was the youngest member of the 1997 Nordic Cup team that also included Grubb, Streiffer, Beene and Sobrero (an overage member of the ’97 team who also was a member of the ’94 Nordic Cup squad). Notre Dame players comprised five of the 16 players on the ’97 Nordic Cup team that won the title in Denmark, with Streiffer scoring the sudden-death gamewinner in the final game vs. Norway.
Streiffer (who started all four games) then joined Grubb and Beene as key regulars on the ’98 Nordic Cup team that came up shy of winning the title but they helped bring home the trophy again in ’99, with Streiffer’s team-leading seven points (3 goals, 1 assist) including the goal that tied Norway with five minutes left in regulation (the U.S. won 2-1 in overtime).
The versatile Chapman – who is set to return for her fifth year of eligibility in the fall of ’05 – played for Canada at the 2001 Nordic Cup and has starred as a forward, midfielder and defender throughout her soccer career.
U.S. Women’s Soccer Under-21 Team – 2005 Nordic Cup Schedule (Sweden; July 20-26, 2005)
July 20 – USA v Iceland (in Kristinehamn)
July 22 – USA v Denmark (in Saffle)
July 24 – USA v Germany (in Karlskoga)
July 26 – Placement Match (TBD)
2005 U. S. UNDER-21 WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM NORDIC CUP ROSTER
Players (Pos., Ht., DOB … Hometown … School … U-21 Caps/Goals)
Nicole Barnhart (G, 5-9 … 10/10/81 … Gilbertsville, PA … Stanford … 11 GP)
Erika Bohn (G, 6-0 … 9/13/84 … Brookfield, CT … Notre Dame)
Jen Buczkowski (M, 5-7 … 4/4/85 … Elk Grove Village, IL … Notre Dame)
Rachel Buehler (D, 5-5 … 8/26/85 … Del Mar, CA … Stanford)
Mary Castelanelli (D, 5-6 … 4/23/85 … Lodi, CA … UCLA)
Lori Chalupny (M, 5-4 … 1/29/84 … St. Louis, MO …UNC … 14 GP/3G)
Lauren Cheney (F, 5-8 … 9/30/87 … Indianapolis, IN … Ben Davis HS)
Kendall Fletcher (D, 5-6 … 11/11/84 … Cary, NC … UNC)
Sarah Huffman (M, 5-3 … 3/5/84 … Flower Mound, TX … Virginia … 8 GP/2G)
Carli Lloyd (M, 5-6 … 7/16/82 … Delran, NJ … Rutgers … 11 GP/4G)
Stephanie Lopez (D, 5-6 … 4/3/86 … Elk Grove, CA … Portland)
Manya Makoski (M, 5-3 … 4/18/84 … Trumbull, CT … Arizona State … 12 GP/1G)
Jessica Maxwell (D, 5-8 … 3/4/85 … Colleville, TT … UNC)
Jill Oakes (M, 5-4 … 7/18/84 … West Hills, CA … UCLA … 12 GP/1G)
Heather O’Reilly (F, 5-5 … 1/2/85 … East Brunswick, NJ … UNC … 2 GP/1G)
Megan Rapinoe (F, 5-7 … 7/5/85 … Redding, CA … Portland)
Amy Rodriguez (F, 5-3 … 2/17/87 … Lake Forest, CA … USC)
Kelly Wilson Schmedes (F, 5-6 … 2/11/83 … Odessa, TX … Texas … 12 GP/3G)
Lindsay Tarpley (M, 5-6 … 9/22/83 … Kalamazoo, MI … UNC … 4 GP/2G)
GOALKEEPERS (2): Nicole Barnhart (Stanford), Erika Bohn (Notre Dame)
DEFENDERS (5): Rachel Buehler (Stanford), Mary Castelanelli (UCLA), Kendall Fletcher (UNC), Stephanie Lopez (Portland), Jessica Maxwell (UNC)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Jen Buczkowski (Notre Dame), Lori Chalupny (UNC), Sarah Huffman (Virginia), Carli Lloyd (Rutgers), Manya Makoski (Arizona State), Jill Oakes (UCLA)
FORWARDS (5): Lauren Cheney (Den Davis HS), Heather O’Reilly (UNC), Megan Rapinoe (Portland), Amy Rodriguez (USC), Kelly Wilson Schmedes (Texas).
2005 U-21 Nordic Cup Schedule
Group A – Sweden, Norway, Finland and England
Group B – USA, Germany, Denmark and Iceland
Wednesday, July 20 – Finland vs. England, Norway vs. Sweden, USA vs. Iceland, Germany vs. Denmark
Friday, July 22 – Finland vs. Sweden, England vs. Norway, Iceland vs. Germany, Denmark vs. USA
Sunday, July 24 – Norway vs. Finland, Sweden vs. England, Iceland vs. Denmark, Germany vs. USA
Tuesday, July 26 – 7th-Place Game, 5th-Place Game, 3rd-Place Game, Championship Game