Lori Chalupny, among the final players cut from the U.S. Olympic women's soccer roster, will head to Iceland instead of Greece — as part of the under-21 team seeking the United States' sixth successive Nordic Cup triumph.
Chalupny, a junior at the University of North Carolina, is one of four players making their third appearances in the Nordic Cup, an annual tournament considered the unofficial ''world championship'' for U-21 women.
U.S. coach Chris Petrucelli's 18-player roster, a virtual college all-star team, also features three-timers Nicole Barnhart from Stanford, midfielder Carli Lloyd from Rutgers, and midfielder Joanna Lohman, who completed her eligibility at Penn State last fall.
The Americans have won six of the past seven Nordic Cups — finishing second to Norway in 1998 — after failing to place higher than third in their first four tournament appearances.
Barnhart, Lloyd, Lohman and Portland's Lindsey Huie are on the roster as ''over-age'' players. Huie is making her second Nordic appearance.
UCLA's Jill Oakes also has previous Nordic experience, and she and Chalupny are among six players from the 2002 U.S. under-19 squad that captured the FIFA U-19 World Championship. The others are Tennessee's Keeley Dowling, Virginia's Sarah Huffman, Arizona State's Manya Makoski and Texas' Kelly Wilson.
Chalupny is the lone player to join the U-21s from the full national team's Olympic Residency in Carson, Calif. Midfielder Leslie Osborne, who also was released when April Heinrichs announced her roster for the Athens Games, declined to play in the Nordic Cup, preferring to head home for rest before Santa Clara's preseason trip to Costa Rica.
Lohman and Lloyd also had trials with the full national team during Residency. Chalupny and Osborne trained with the U-21s on occasion during the spring and early summer.
There are three players from Stanford (Barnhart, Jenny Farenbaugh and Hayley Hunt) and two each from North Carolina (Chalupny and Kacey White) and Texas (Wilson and Nikki Thaden).
Petrucelli is head coach at the University of Texas.
Chalupny, Huie, Lohman and 6-foot-2 goalkeeper Kati Jo Spisak, from Texas A&M, were 2003 Soccer America College Women's MVPs.
Also chosen for the squad are Hawaii's Natasha Kai, the NCAA's goalscoring leader in 2003 and top U-21 scorer this year with nine goals; and DePaul midfielder Julianne Sitch and Princeton forward Esmeralda Negron.
Petrucelli's team's primary alignment is a 4-3-3, and his favored starting XI has Barnhart in goal; Farenbaugh, Oakes, Dowling and Huie across the back line; Huffman or Thaden supporting Lohman and Lloyd in midfield; and Kai, Wilson and Makoski up front.
U.S. NORDIC CUP ROSTER
(with hometown and university and year)
Goalkeepers
Nicole Barnhart (Gilbertsville, Pa.), Stanford, sr.
Kati Jo Spisak (Manchester, Mo)., Texas A&M, jr.
Defenders
Keeley Dowling (Carmel, Ind.), Tennessee, sr.
Jenny Farenbaugh (Reseda, Calif.), Stanford, jr.
Lindsey Huie (Mission Viejo, Calif.), Portland, jr.
Hayley Hunt (San Marino, Calif.), Stanford, jr.
Jill Oakes (West Hills, Calif.), UCLA, jr.
Midfielders
Lori Chalupny (St. Louis), North Carolina, jr.
Sarah Huffman (Flower Mound, Texas), Virginia, jr.
Carli Lloyd (Delran, N.J.), Rutgers, sr. Joanna Lohman (Silver Spring, Md.), Penn State, eligibility finished
Julianne Sitch (Oswego, Ill.), DePaul, jr.
Nikki Thaden (Clive, Iowa), Texas, soph.
Kacey White (Arlington, Texas), North Carolina, jr.
Forwards
Natasha Kai (Kahuku, Hawaii), Hawaii, jr.
Manya Makoski (Trumbell, Conn.), Arizona State, jr.
Esmeralda Negron (Harrington Park, N.J.), Princeton, sr.
Kelly Wilson (Odessa, Texas), Texas, sr.
Head coach: Chris Petrucelli (University of Texas)
Assistant coach: Karen Ferguson (University of Louisville)
Goalkeeper coach: Bill Irwin (University of Portland)
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U.S. SCHEDULE
July 23: vs. Finland at Dalvik, Iceland.
July 25: vs. Norway at Olafsfjordur, Iceland.
July 27: vs. Germany at Dalvik, Iceland.
July 29: Placement match at site TBA.
NORDIC CUP SCHEDULE
July 23
Group A: Denmark vs. Sweden, Iceland vs. England.
Group B: United States vs. Finland, Norway vs. Germany.
July 25
Group A: England vs. Sweden, Iceland vs. Denmark.
Group B: United States vs. Norway, Finland vs. Germany.
July 27
Group A: Denmark vs. Iceland, Sweden vs. England.
Group B: United States vs. Germany, Norway vs. Finland.
July 29
Placement matches
