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Princeton University Athletics
Negron Named To Under-21 National Team For Nordic Cup
July 08, 2004 | Women's Soccer
July 8, 2004
Esmeralda Negron, the 2003 Ivy League women's soccer Player of the Year, will make her international debut as a member of the United States Under-21 National Team at the Nordic Cup event in Iceland later this month.
The Nordic Cup, now in its ninth year, serves as the unofficial Under-21 World Championship.
The U.S. team will open play against Finland on July 23 in the Northern Icelandic town of Dalvik, located 40 miles from the Arctic Circle. The United States also plays games against Norway and Germany in the opening round before the final day of placement games on July 29, which will see teams square off for first, third, fifth and seventh places.
The U.S. has won the championship six of the first eight years of the competition, including each of the last five. The 2004 team was selected from a pool of players at a tryout camp in California.
Negron, a native of Harrington Park, N.J., is the lone Ivy League member of the team. Among her teammates are Carli Lloyd of Rutgers and Kati Jo Spisak of Texas A&M, against whom Princeton will open its season on Sept. 3. There are also three players from Stanford and two from NCAA champion North Carolina.
Negron tied the Princeton record with 13 goals last season, and she enters her senior year in second place all-time at Princeton with 27 career goals, 14 away from the school record. She was a first-team All-Ivy League and third-team All-America selection.