Oct. 29, 2008

BALTIMORE - First-year UMass women's lacrosse assistant coach Acacia Walker has been named to the U.S. Women's Lacrosse Training Team as announced by U.S. Lacrosse. Walker will compete in the 2009 Federation of International Lacrosse Women's World Cup this June in Prague in the Czech Republic. Former UMass assistant coach Sarah Albrecht was also named to the team.

Below is the the official release from U.S. Lacrosse:

US Lacrosse has named 24 players to the U.S. training team for the 2009 Federation of International Lacrosse Women's World Cup, which will be held June 17-27 in Prague in the Czech Republic. A record 16 nations are expected to compete in the event.

The U.S. training team was selected from a 48-player pool that competed at the US Lacrosse Stars & Stripes Weekend in Syracuse, N.Y. on Oct. 11-12.

"It's always difficult, but I've told my staff, `We're not picking the best 24 players. We're picking the 24 people that will give us the best team,'" said U.S. team head coach Sue Heether. "We have the best pool of players in the world. There's no doubt in my mind about that."

The training team will hold a practice weekend in December and will compete along with the remaining 24 players from the player pool (developmental team) during the US Lacrosse Champions Challenge in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., from Jan. 30 - Feb. 1. The final 18 players for the World Cup and six alternates will be selected following that event. Heether left open the option of players not selected for the training team to move up to the World Cup team.

"I told a number of the players, `If you think I'm wrong, tell us and show us why in January,'" said Heether.

Headlining the roster is two-time World Cup veteran Quinn Carney. Carney was named to the all-world team after helping the U.S. to the silver medal at the 2005 World Cup in Annapolis, Md. Three alternates from the 2005 U.S. World Cup team -- Katie Chrest, Michele DeJuliis and Acacia Walker -- were named to the training team.