USA Field Hockey News

USA Field Hockey News

USA Field Hockey Women’s New Zealand Test Series Team Named

Colorado Springs, Colo. (April 15, 2005) – USA Field Hockey will introduce its young, new-look Women's National Team to international play next month when the team travels to New Zealand for a five-match test series, May 10-22.

With a new coach and a new, young team, the USA will meet New Zealand at Wellington, May 14 before traveling to Napier for a pair of games May 16 and 17. The two teams will then meet in Levin on May 19 before returning to Wellington for the series finale May 21.

Under new coach Lee Bodimeade, the 18-member USA team features nine members who will be seeking their first international caps. The players making their senior team debuts include Sarah Dawson (Berlin, N.J.), Lauren Crandall (Doyelstown, Pa.), Kelly Doton (Greenfield, Mass.), Claire Laubach (Bristow, Va.), Angie North (Houston, Texas), Katie O’Donnell (Blue Bell, Pa.), Lauren Powley (Mountaintop, Pa.), Sara Silvetti (Wapwallopen, Pa.), and Barb Weinberg (Louisville, Ky.). Dawson, Laubach, Powely, Silvetti and Weinberg are all coming off of All-America seasons at the collegiate level, while North earned the honor as a senior in 2001. Doton was the NCAA Player of the Year in 2003.

A high school junior, O’Donnell is the youngest member of the touring squad and joins Crandall and Powley on the U.S. senior team for the tour after earning silver medals with the U.S. junior team in last month’s Pan American Junior Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The three junior team players will have the opportunity to compete in the Junior World Cup in September in Santiago, Chile.

While the USA will introduce some of its youngest athletes on the tour, the team also includes veteran standouts Kate Barber (West Chester, Pa.) and Carrie Lingo (Rehoboth Beach, Del.). One of the team’s most prolific goal scorers, Barber has appeared in a team-high 120 international contests while Lingo returns for her sixth year on the national team in adding to her 76 career matches.

The team also includes 2004 team veterans Robyn Kenney (Readington, N.J.), Melissa Leonetti (Erdenheim, Pa.), Angie Loy (Loysville, Pa.), Dina Rizzo (Walpole, Mass.), Tiffany Snow (Escondido, Calif.) and Amy Tran (Grantville, Pa.). Loy, Rizzo, Snow and Tran were all members of the 2004 Olympic Qualifying Tournament team that placed sixth in Auckland.

The USA roster also includes the return of Kristen Holmes-Winn (Princeton, N.J.) to the U.S. team. The head field hockey coach at Princeton Univ., Holmes-Winn was invited to compete with the squad by the U.S. coaching staff after observing the former USA national team standout perform in drills and competition as a coach at the team’s training camp. Holmes-Winn previously played with the USA National Team from 1995-2000. She was a member of the 1998 World Cup team and an alternate to the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team.

The young USA team will face a New Zealand squad that includes 11 Olympians. New Zealand placed sixth at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The tour will mark the first international matches for the USA since earning a silver medal at the Pan American Cup in April, 2004.