U20 WNT Announces 2010 Squad


BOULDER, Colo. – Following the U20 Women’s National Team Camp held at the University of California - Santa Barbara the U20 WNT Head Coach Bryn Chivers has officially announced the 2010 squad. The squad is comprised of 24 players from 22 high school, college, and club programs from across the country including the program’s first ever player from Hawaii. With only ten returning players, the squad is very different from the one that lost 12-13 to the Canada U20s in January.

Chivers wasn’t happy with the team’s performance against the Canada U20s, feeling that squad had underperformed in the one point loss. “It was just a little lackluster. We had very good players but the chemistry of the squad was off and they didn’t play well together.” This prompted a shake up that saw a whole new group of players invited to the U20 Elite Camp and resulted in the U20’s going 2-0 against their opposition at the U23 National All-Star Championships.

The rebuilt squad has five new forwards including Western Washington’s Mileka Grager and UConn’s Alycia Washington. The nine new backs include All-American center Star Bolinger from BYU, Akalaini Baravilala from the Aliamanu Rugby Club in Hawaii, and wings Holly Zoeller and Bex Siebach from North Carolina and BYU respectively.

This new squad is very exciting to watch” said Chivers. “We have the experience of players like Jozy Gessner, Katie Johnson, and Candace Barley who are in their fourth and fifth years in the program, but we also have a large group of new players who bring a fierce energy to the squad”.

The U20s will represent the USA in the North American and Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Championships, August 15-21 in Nassau, Bahamas. The tournament will feature the senior women’s national teams from Cayman and Bahamas, a Caribbean Select Side and the U20 sides from the USA and Canada.

This will be the first time the U20 WNT has played any of the Caribbean sides and Chivers recognizes that the team is stepping into the unknown. “We have no idea what to expect from this tournament. A Caribbean Select Side of senior players presents a different challenge for this young squad and we could get beat by their size and experience or come away with a win. The thing we doknow is that the Caribbean senior sides will provide us with strong opposition in preparation for the game against the Canada U20s”. The Junior Eagles will open against Cayman on Sunday, August 15th.

USA U20 Schedule

Sun Aug 15th: USA U20 WNT v Cayman (5.00 p.m)

Tue Aug 17th: USA U20 WNT v Caribbean Select Side (3.00 p.m.)

Fri Aug 20th: USA U20 WNT v Canada U20’s (5.00 p.m.)

2010 USA U20 Women’s National Team

Hailey Anderson Summit, Colorado

Akalaini Baravilala Aliamanu, Hawaii

Candace Barley Lee University

Star Bollinger Women Cougar Rugby

Ann Marie Bowlus UC Santa Cruz

Chelsea Garber Brown

Jozy Gessner Colorado State

Mileka Grager Washington State

Katie Hathaway Norwich

Katie Humphreys Kent, Washington

Katie Johnson Hopkins, Minnesota

Mackenzie Lewis Mesa State

Hannah Lockwood Oregon State

Kyandrea McKnight U of Central Florida

Brittany O’Brien U of Rhode Island

Brittany Rose Unattached

Rachael Ryan U of Wyoming

Kelly Sager Penn State

Andee Samborski Livingston, Michigan

Wendy Sherman Colorado State

Rebekah Siebach Women Cougar Rugby

Amee Svatos Canby, Oregon

Alycia Washington U of Connecticut

Holly Zoeller U of North Carolina