Nov. 30, 2015
By Joanne Norell
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Three University of Notre Dame women’s soccer players have been named to their respective national team rosters ahead of the 2015 CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship, to be held from Dec. 3-13 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Irish sophomore Sabrina Flores and freshman Natalie Jacobs have been added as defenders to the United States U-20 Women’s National Team, head coach Michelle French announced on November 25, while sophomore Monica Flores will once again play for the Mexico National Team in the eight-nation championship. Both the U.S. and Mexico will play in Group B of the two-group format, with the top two finishers from each group advancing to the tournament semifinals. The top three finishers will earn berths to the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Papua New Guinea.
Championship games will be played at Francisco Morazen Stadium and Olympic Stadium, with the U.S. playing all of its Group B Games at Olympic Stadium. The U.S. and Mexico will begin group play against each other on Friday at 8:30 ET on FOX Sports 2. On December 6, Mexico and Haiti will square off at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the U.S. and Panama at 8:30 p.m. They will wrap up group play on December 8 as Mexico plays Panama at 6 p.m. and the U.S. takes on Haiti at 8:30 p.m.
Sabrina Flores has been involved with U.S. Soccer since 2011 when she participated in the U-15 Girls National Team camp and was later invited to the U-16 Girls National Team camp in 2012. In 2013, she logged a pair of appearances with the U-18 Women’s Youth National Team.
Jacobs has played in the U.S. Soccer system since U-14s and has logged 14 international caps as a central defender. In January 2015, Jacobs competed with the squad against Bayern Munich. Previously, the freshman — who was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Freshman team as a forward – was a member of the U.S. U-17 team that won the Four Nations Tournament in 2014, and was a team captain for the side in matches against England and Guatemala in 2013. In a 2014 match against the Mexico U-20 team, Jacobs was selected as player of the match as a member of the U-18 WNT.
Both Jacobs and Flores competed for the U.S. U-20 WNT earlier this year at the La Manga Tournament in Spain in March and again at the U.S. U-20 Women’s NTC Invitational in Carson City, California, in June.
Monica Flores made her first international match appearance for the Mexico U-20s in June at the U.S. U-20 Women’s NTC Invitational. She had previously been involved at various levels of the U.S. Soccer development program since 2011 before earning the nod with Mexico for the NTC Invitational.
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Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2014 and coordinates communications efforts for the Notre Dame women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and fencing programs. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University and earned her master’s degree from Georgetown University in 2013.