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US Women will meet South Africa in a 4-game series Oct. 13-20.

Anxious US Women Ready to Return to Turf vs South Africa

An anxious U.S. Field Hockey Women's National Team will finally return to the turf when the U.S. women host South Africa in a four-game East Coast tour, Oct 13-20.
     The tour will take the teams to Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass. (Oct. 13), The University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn.(Oct. 14), Springfield (Mass.) College (Oct. 16) and the team's new US Field Hockey Training Center at Virginia Beach, Va. (Oct. 20). Tickets for the games are $5 and are available at the gate and through the U.S. Field Hockey National Office at 719-866-4567.
      The games mark the first time the U.S. women have played official matches on U.S. soil since 1998, and signify the team's first competition since July. The South Africa matches will take on added significance after the team was unable to attend last month's World Cup Qualifying Tournament in France following the terrorist attacks in the United States. The U.S. will instead try to earn its way to the World Cup against the Qualifier's seventh-place team, India, in a three-game series at a date yet to be determined. The South Africa games will provide some much needed preparation for the all-important series.

            "This team has been training for so long and building up for that event the whole year, that the Qualifier will be difficult to replace," said U.S. coach Tracey Belbin. "I am sure when this team finally gets to the field, there will be plenty of emotions - immense patriotism, points to prove, excitement to finally play someone. But I know that when we finally have the opportunity to play, it will be with passion and fervor."

        Belbin's team for the tour includes 1996 Olympians Tracey Fuchs (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Katie Kauffman (West Lawn, Pa.) and Jill Reeve (Hoosick Falls, N.Y.) in addition to Kate Barber (West Chester, Pa.), Natalie Dawson (Berlin, N.J.), Jill Dedman (Orange, Conn.), Kelli Gannon (Escondido, Calif.), Tara Jelley (Greenfield, Mass.), Tracey Larson (Morrisville, Pa.), Kristen McCann (Allentown, Pa.), Melanie Meerschwam (Amstelveen, The Netherlands), Kim Miller (Virginia Beach, Va.), Mimi Smith (Virginia Beach, Va.), Peggy Storrar (Mahopca, NY) and Carla Tagliente (Cortland, N.Y.).

The team currently resides in Virginia Beach as part of U.S. Field Hockey's residency program.

The 10th place team at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, South Africa's squad for the tour includes Olympians Pietie Coetzee, Inke Van Wyk, Carina Van Zijil, Lindsey Carlisle, Kerry Bee, Luntu Ntloko and Susan Wessels. A long-time USA nemesis, Coetzee scored both goals in a 2-1 South Africa at the 1998 World Cup, and joined the USA's Fuchs on the 1999 FIH President's XI All-Star team in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the FIH.