Dec. 30, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A pair of Nittany Lions are among the 27 players who will attend a six-day camp with new U.S. Women's National Team coach Pia Sundhage at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., from Jan. 3-8, 2008. Three-time All-American Joanna Lohman (Silver Spring, Md.) and two-time All-American Ali Krieger (Dumfries, Va.) A 20-player roster will be chosen after camp and will travel to China for the Four Nations Tournament in Foshan, China from Jan. 16-20.
The Four Nations Tournament is an annual competition, which also includes Canada, Finland and China. This year, the Tournament will be held just seven months before Beijing hosts the 2008 Olympics. The U.S. squad meets Canada on Jan. 16 before playing Finland on Jan. 18 and then meeting China on Jan. 20. The Four Nations Tournament marks the first action for the squad under Sundhage, who was hired in November.
The M.A.C. Hermann Trophy runner-up in 2003, Lohman was a three-time NSCAA All-American at Penn State as well as a four-time first team All-Big Ten selection. Lohman earned back-to-back Soccer America Collegiate MVP's in 2002 and '03, and was the conference's Player of the Year in 2003. A member of four Big Ten championship teams, she was on Penn State's 2002 College Cup squad and earned College Cup All-Tournament recognition. She graduated Penn State with a 3.98 GPA earning an NCAA postgraduate scholarship and winning the Big Ten's prestigious Medal of Honor.
Krieger was a first team NSCAA All-American in 2006 as a defender and earned honors in 2005 as a midfielder. Named the Big Ten defensive co-player of the year her senior year, she also earned Big Ten Tournament Defensive MVP honors after leading the Nittany Lions to their fourth conference tournament title. A semifinalist for the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy, she was also named to the Mid-Atlantic All-Region first team by the NSCAA and was the 2006 Mid-Atlantic Player of the Year by Soccer Buzz Magazine.
Penn State won its unprecedented 10th consecutive Big Ten title in 2007, which was its first under new head coach Erica Walsh. The Nittany Lions finished the year ranked 12th in the final NSCAA poll after earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
--NITTANY LIONS--