Action continued at the U.S. Field Hockey Women's National Championship on Tuesday with day No. 2 of competition for the eight current and former Minutewomen playing. Check out how each did:
The USA-White Team, including Hannah Prince and Brooke Sabia, defeated Sam Carlino and Kim Young, who compete for USA-Red, 2-1. Carlino, Prince and Sabia all started for their respective teams while Young entered the fray off the bench in the ninth minute of competition.
Carla Tagliente's USA-Blue Team and Pam Bustin's U21 squad played through full time tied at 1-1. The U21 group, which includes Izzie Delario, scored first in the 39th minute before USA-Blue answered in the 58th.
Alexa Sikalis and the USA-Freedom Team shut out USA-Courage, 3-0. Sikalis earned the start in the midfield for USA-Freedom and is wearing jersey No. 4 for the tournament.
The USA-Patriots Team featuring Hailey Cockrum dropped a 3-0 decision to Renee Suter and the USA-Eagles. Cockrum rotated into the lineup during the fifth minute while Suter was tabbed a starter.
More on the Women's National Championship can be found on TeamUSA.org. The most up-to-date information on UMass field hockey is available through UMassAthletics.com.
Eight current or former UMass field hockey student-athletes began competition at the 2014 U.S. Women's National Championship on Monday. The event serves as a proving-ground for potential members of the 2014-15 United States Women's National Team, with U.S. head coach Craig Parnham and the Women's National Team High Performance Staff on-site to evaluate competitors.
Izzie Delario and the U21 Team defeated USA-White, 6-1, as Delario tallied once to support her team and help the U21 Team out-match a pair of Delario's UMass teammates in Hannah Prince and Brooke Sabia.
Four-year standout and 2013 NFHCA All-American Alexa Sikalis helped lead Team Freedom to an 8-0 victory over Team Patriots and rising-sophomore Hailey Cockrum.
Current UMass head coach Carla Tagliente guided USA-Blue to a 6-2 win over USA-Red, which featured rising-junior Sam Carlino and former Minutewoman Kim Young.
Renee Suter, a 2014 team captain for Massachusetts, helped lead Team Eagles to a shutout of Team Courage, 3-0.
Additional ties to UMass field hockey abound at the event as Pam Bustin, a star on the pitch at UMass from 1985-88, serves as the head coach of the U21 team and former head coach Justine Sowry leads Team Patriots.
More information on the 2014 Women's National Championship is available through TeamUSA.org. Keep up-to-date with everything UMass field hockey through UMassAthletics.com.
The NCAA Field Hockey Championship starts this weekend and, as was announced on Tuesday's selection show, a pair of UMass alumnae will face each other in the first round. Former UMass All-Americans Pam Bustin and Tara (Jelley) Danielson are the head coaches at Duke and Stanford, respectively, and will face each other on Saturday at Old Dominion's Powhatan Sports Center in Norfok, Va.
Bustin, a First Team All-American with UMass in 1988 as well as an Olympian in 1996, is in her first year as head coach of the No. 6 Blue Devils (13-7, 2-3 ACC) after serving the same position at Louisville for 13 years. Her job with the Cardinals was filled by former UMass head coach Justine Sowry.
Danielson is in her second year at the helm for No. 10 Stanford (17-3, 6-0 NorPac). UMass' 1993 All-American was a member of the US National Team for several years. The Greenfield native coached against her alma mater a year ago in the NCAA play-in game, defeating UMass 2-1 to earn her first NCAA bid. The Minutewomen would earn an at-large bid that season.
UMass field hockey junior goalkeeper
Alesha Widdall is currently playing in Europe with the US Junior National Team (U-21).
USA Field Hockey has posted a schedule for Team USA's games in Ireland yesterday and today, as well as the games in Germany throughout the rest of the week.
The USA U-21 squad is coached by former UMass player and assistant coach, and current Boston College coach Ainslee Lamb.
Also, new UMass head coach Carla Tagliente is the head coach of the USA U-19 squad. She is assisted by UMass alum and current Duke head coach Pam Bustin. Stay tuned for updates on what the U-19'ers are up to during their training season.
Good luck to Alesha as she represents the Red, White, & Blue!
