AMHERST, Mass. - Three members of the UMass Field Hockey Team are among the 108 athletes that USA Field Hockey has invited to its Junior National Team Camp. Sophomore goalkeeper Alesha Widdall along with incoming freshmen midfielders Kate Heineman and Kim Young will attend the training camp at Babson College on July 16-19. There they will train with some of the top players and coaches in the country, including the national team staff, for the chance to compete at the 2009 Junior World Cup in August in Boston.

Following the Junior National Camp, the U.S. team will be selected and it will train at UMass' Garber Field on July 20-23 in preparation for the Junior World Cup, which will take place in Boston on August 3-16.

UMass head coach and two-time reigning Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year Justine Sowry will be part of the United States' coaching staff at the Junior World Cup.

Widdall, a Whitney Point, N.Y. native, has long been part of the USA Field Hockey junior program. She burst onto the NCAA scene in 2008 by going 14-5 with a 1.06 goals against average to earn second team All-American honors as a freshman.

Heineman, from Ellicott City, Md., and Young, from Sidney, N.Y., will play their first season for the two-time defending A-10 champion Minutewomen in 2009.

The Women's Hockey Junior World Cup is a 16-team tournament sponsored by the International Hockey Federation. It has been held every four years since 1989 and participants must be 21 years of age or under. Team USA will be looking for its first ever medal in the event as it is being held on American soil for the first time. West Germany, Argentina, and the Netherlands won the first three Junior World Cups, while South Korea has won the last two, most recently in 2005 in Santiago, Chile.

Widdall and UMass assistant coach Kelly Dostal were also recently selected to be part of the National Developmental Team.

Kate Heineman