Five Women of Troy To Travel With Team USA
July 05, 2006 | Women's Water Polo
July 5, 2006
The list of USC's Olympic hopefuls stretched several names longer with the announcement of the U.S. Women's Water Polo National Team roster for this summer's competition, which sets Team USA on a path toward the 2008 Olympic Games. Five members of USC's 2006 women's water polo team -- Patty Cardenas, Kami Craig, Erika Figge, Moriah Van Norman and Lauren Wenger -- will travel to Italy and China this summer as members of the U.S. National Team for the FINA World League and FINA World Cup competitions.
It will be the second major international competition with Team USA for Erika Figge (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif./Santa Margarita HS), Moriah Van Norman (San Diego, Calif./University HS) and Lauren Wenger (Long Beach, Calif./Wilson HS), who won silver at the 2005 World Championships with the USA last summer. For Patty Cardenas (Commerce, Calif./Bell Gardens HS) and Kami Craig (Santa Barbara, Calif./Santa Barbara HS), the coming competition will be their first appearances as U.S. National Team members. In addition to the five Trojans on the travel roster, U.S. assistant coach Bernice Orwig also hails from USC, and current Trojan Brittany Hayes (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill HS) has been named an alternate for the team. Hayes and Cardenas are also playing as members of the U.S. National "B" Team, which is competing in the FINA World League Prelims in Quebec City, Canada, from July 7-9.
Once back in the United States, Cardenas will rejoin Craig, Figge, Van Norman and Wenger and the rest of the full National Team squad to kick off the busy weeks to come at the FINA World League Semifinals, held July 12-16 at the USA Water Polo National Training Center in Los Alamitos, Calif. Team USA hosts Australia, Brazil, Canada, China and New Zealand before moving on to the FINA World League Super Final from July 26-30 in Italy. The premier competition of the summer for Team USA comes soon after at the FINA Women's World Cup in Tanjing, China, from Aug. 8-13.
With five Women of Troy named to the 2006 U.S. National Team roster, USC boasts the highest representation of any college this summer. USC also has numerous former players competing for their respective countries. 2006 senior Anna Pardo has been helping Spain to an undefeated start to FINA World League competition. Germany has two USC graduates on its roster in Katrin Dierolf and Nina Wengst, and Russia continues to be sparked by two-time Olympian Sofia Konoukh. Hungarians Aniko Pelle and Eszter Gyori remain members of their national team, although Hungary is not competing in the FINA World League. However, Hungary will be joining the USA, Russia, China, Greece, Australia, Italy and Canada at the FINA Women's World Cup in August.
USC also will have representation on the U.S. Junior National Team this summer, as Michelle Stein (Palm Desert, Calif./Palm Desert HS) recently was named a member of the U.S. team that will compete in Greece at the Pythia Cup from July 21-23 and the Citta di Rapallo from July 27-30 in Italy.
FINA WORLD LEAGUE SEMIFINALS AND SUPER FINAL ROSTER:
Betsey Armstrong (Ann Arbor, Mich./Michigan)
Patty Cardenas (Commerce, Calif./USC)
Kami Craig (Santa Barbara, Calif./USC)
Emily Feher (Tustin, Calif./UCLA)
Erika Figge (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif./USC)
Natalie Golda (Fullerton, Calif./UCLA)
Alison Gregorka (Ann Arbor, Mich./Stanford)
Ericka Lorenz (San Diego, Calif./California)
Heather Petri (Orinda, Calif./California)
Jessica Steffens (Danville, Calif./Stanford)
Moriah Van Norman (San Diego, Calif./USC)
Brenda Villa (Commerce, Calif./Stanford)
Lauren Wenger (Long Beach, Calif./USC)
Elsie Windes (Portland, Ore./California)
Alternates:
Brittany Hayes (Santa Ana, CA/USC)
Jaime Hipp (Fresno, CA/UCLA)
WOMEN'S SENIOR NATIONAL TEAM SCHEDULE:
July 12-16: FINA World League Semifinals (Los Alamitos, CA)
July 18-23: Common Training/Games (Hungary)
July 26-30: FINA World League Super Final (Italy)
August 8-13: FINA World Cup (Tanjing, China)
November 3-5: Speedo Top 40 Festival (Los Alamitos, CA)
December 6-10: Holiday Cup (Los Alamitos, CA)
WOMEN'S JUNIOR NATIONAL TEAM SCHEDULE:
July 15-17: Training camp with New Zealand JNT (Los Alamitos)
July 21-23: Pythia Cup (Greece)
July 27-30: Citta di Rapallo (Italy)
