Wake Forest Athletics
Three Deacons Named To US-National Field Hockey Team
1/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
Jan. 19, 2005
Winston-Salem, NC - USA Field Hockey announced Tuesday selections for its 2005 women's national squad and 2005 women's under-21 squad following trials at the USA Field Hockey National Training Center in Virginia Beach, Va. The Deacons placed more recent graduates on the national squad than any other University. 2004 graduate and this season's assistant coach Kelly Doton will join reigning National Champions and first team All-Americans Kelly Dostal and Claire Laubach on the 2005 US-National Team.
The 2005 national squad returns 12 athletes from the 2004 team, but brings in 13 additional members, including eight former Atlantic Coast Conference players - four of whom played at Wake Forest. 2003 Deacon graduate Maria Whitehead, now the head coach at St. Louis, joins Doton, Dostal and Laubach as the newest members of the 2005 national team.
"I think we had great representation at the trials last weekend," said Deacon head coach Jennifer Averill. "I thought the girls played with great poise under the conditions and elements and that they only got stronger as the weekend progressed."
Doton, the 2003 winner of the National Field Hockey Player of the Year award, was twice named the ACC Player of the Year and led her Deacons to back-to-back ACC regular season titles, ACC Championships and NCAA National Titles. Dostal, the nations top player in 2004, the 2004 ACC Offensive Player of the Year, and a three-time All-American and All-ACC selection, holds nearly all of the Deacon offensive statistical records and led the nation in scoring this season. Laubach, a two-time All-ACC selection and a 2004 first team All-American, led a 2002 Deacon defense that became one of only two programs to shut out all opponents in an NCAA tournament, and the only one to do it over four games. Dostal and Laubach were part of a Wake Forest era that in four years outscored opponents 350 to 87 and captured three straight national crowns.
The national squad will begin training for the 2005 Rabobank Champions Challenge to be held July 8-16 in Virginia Beach. The tournament features six of the world's top-rated teams including England, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain and the host USA. National squad athletes will either relocate and train as part of the U.S. residency squad in Virginia Beach or take part in regionalized training at locations near their residence through USA Field Hockey's new Elite Performance Training Center program.
The 29-member USA Under-21 squad will have a familiar look with 21 athletes owning previous junior national team experience. Athletes returning to the junior squad from the 2004 U19 and U21 teams include Wake Forest's own Lauren Crandall and Jamie Whitten, as well as eight other ACC athletes.
Under junior team head coach Tracey Fuchs, the U21 team will compete in the Junior Pan American Championships, March 16-27 in San Juan, Puerto Rico with hopes of qualifying for the Junior World Cup later this fall. The top three finishers at the Junior Pan Am event are expected to qualify for the Junior World Cup scheduled for September in Santiago, Chile.
The trials also provided additional selections to USA Field Hockey's new Elite Performance Training Centers where athletes will train in regional locations throughout the United States to further enhance their skills for potential selection to the USA national teams. The Elite Performance Training Centers will conduct regional tryouts for 2005 in late January and early February.
Eleven girls were senior trial selections to the Training Centers, while 19 were junior trial selections, including Deacon goalkeeper Kristina Gagliardi, who allowed only three goals in this year's NCAA Tournament, as Wake Forest captured its third straight national title.
"I am extremely proud with the way they handled themselves under pressure and I think that they will add great things, not only on the playing field, but off the field as well," said Averill.
