ATLANTA – The Penn State women’s soccer program saw a pair of current student-athletes land roster spots on the United States U20 Women’s Youth National Team for the upcoming CONCACAF Women’s U20 Championship to be held in Costa Rica from May 30 through June 8, the United States Soccer Federation announced Friday. Rising sophomores in defender Bella Ayscue and goalkeeper Kealey Titmuss will represent the Red, White & Blue at the event later this summer.
The Apex, North Carolina, native Ayscue was a crucial part of Penn State’s success in her freshman season, with the rookie appearing in all 25 matches while logging 11 starts in the latter half of the campaign. She primarily played in a wing back role, amassing 947 minutes played, finishing her first season with seven total points split between one goal in the NCAA Tournament against Stony Brook and five total assists. Ayscue’s tally against the Seawolves in the first round of the national postseason went in the scorebook as the match-winning score, her first collegiate match-winning goal. Additionally, she helped steer PSU to 11 shutouts as a contributor to the back line, helping secure one of the strongest defensive seasons in recent memory.
Titmuss, a native of Grand Blanc, Michigan, is coming off a redshirt campaign in her true freshman year, learning behind a pair of elite starting goalkeepers in redshirt sophomore Mackenzie Gress and redshirt junior Amanda Poorbaugh. Titmuss was the highest-rated individual athlete in Penn State’s 2024 signing class, earning the No. 20 spot in the TopDrawerSoccer overall player rankings as well as the No. 1 goalkeeper ranking in the nation. She is a longtime participant in the U.S. Women’s Youth National Team program, appearing in a pair of USYNT Domestic Camps in 2021 and 2022. Titmuss has been named to a multitude of USYNT International Camps for the U16, U17 and U19 National Teams for the 2022 UEFA Youth Tournament, a set of friendlies against England in 2023 as well as the 2023 Pan American Games, among other national team opportunities.
The U.S. roster is made up of players born in 2006 and 2007, and current U.S. U-19 head coach Carrie Kveton will lead the squad before new U.S. U-20 WNT head coach Vicky Jepson takes over after the qualifying tournament. Players born on or after Jan. 1, 2006, are age-eligible for the 2025 Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship. The roster is almost evenly divided between birth years with 10 born in 2006 and 11 in 2007. The USA will take aim at one of four berths to the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland and a record eighth CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship after dominant runs to the confederation crown in 2020 and 2022. In addition to Penn State’s pair of current student-athletes that earned roster spots, program alumna and current NWSL athlete Katie Scott landed a roster spot in her own right, while incoming freshman midfielder Riley Cross will work with the group as a practice player.
The eight-team 2025 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship will feature round-robin play within two groups of four teams each. After group play, the group winners and runners-up will advance to the semifinals and qualify for next year’s World Cup. For the first time, the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup will feature 24 nations, up from 16 in the previous eight editions of the tournament. Twelve nations contested the title in 2002 and 2004, when it was held as a U-19 event. The semifinals will be played on June 6 followed by the final on June 8. All matches will take place at Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto in Alajuela, Costa Rica.
The USA will face Guyana on May 30 (1 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. local), Puerto Rico on June 1 (1 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. local) and host Costa Rica on June 3 (4 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. local) in Group A play at the tournament, which will run from May 29-June 8 in Alajuela, Costa Rica. The top four finishers in the tournament will advance to represent the region in Poland in the fall of next year. Before heading to Costa Rica, the team will train in Florida for a week, beginning on May 22.
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