Five Western Australian women are heading to San Francisco on 24th September to play lacrosse in the Stars and Stripes International, a Pre-World Cup tournament.
The tournament will be played at Stanford University from 3-7 October.
The five Western Australian Players are;
Tegan Brown (26, from Victoria Park) from the Phoenix Lacrosse Club/University of Syracuse
Rebecca Banyard (23from Floreat) from Wembley Lacrosse Club /University of Vermont
Hannah Barnsley (25 from Innaloo) from Wembley Lacrosse Club
Elizabeth Hinkes (20 from Leederville) from Wembley Lacrosse Club
Tessa Atkinson (18 from Churchlands) from the East Fremantle Lacrosse Club
Brown, Banyard, Hinkes and Atkinson will be representing Australia while Barnsley will be playing for England. All five players have already played in an Under 19 World Championship for their countries and Brown and Barnsley have played in a Senior World Cup.
The current Australian squad will take on the National squads from USA, England and Canada as well as a couple of Division 1 USA College teams. Australia is expected to perform quite well in the tournament particularly against reigning World Champions, USA. Competition is always extremely close between Australia and the US - at the last World Cup in 2009 Australia medalled silver losing to the USA by one goal. In 2005, Australia over-powered the USA smashing them 14-7 to win the gold at the World Championship and they are hungry for gold again.
Midfielder, Tegan Brown said, “It’s an amazing opportunity for our team to get together and play against some of the best players in the world. The tournament is almost a mini world cup in its own right, with the top teams around the world sending their squads to get an idea of which players are up for that level of competition. This is an opportunity Australian Lacrosse hasn’t had in the past and will be a great way for us to highlight what we are already doing really well and what small gaps we need to work on to help take us to that next level and make us number 1 again.” Brown said that the tournament is also going to be a great opportunity for the WA girls to showcase to their coaches, who are based in the Eastern States just how much hard work and dedication they have put into their training. “It’s exciting and I can’t wait to play with the best in Australia again against some of the world’s toughest competition”.
As soon as the girls return from the US there is no rest – All five of them will all play for Western Australia in the Australia National Championships from 10-13 October.
Brown and Banyard earnt scholarships to Division 1 Colleges in the USA allowing them to play lacrosse at the second highest level after World Championships. Hinkes is currently trying to secure a scholarship with a USA Division 1 college.
For more information about Lacrosse in Western Australia visit www.lacrossewa.com.au
Lacrosse WA is proudly supported by Healthway, to promote the Smarter than Smoking message
Last Modified on 01/12/2013 12:16