UMBC

Printer Friendly  Email This Page
News Release

Two Future Retrievers to Compete for FIL U19 World Championship This Summer

2/16/2011

BALTIMORE—Future UMBC women’s lacrosse players Alyssa Blevins (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) and Jordan Lyons (Peterborough, Ontario/St. Peter’s), who have signed National Letters of Intent to join the Retrievers next season, have both been named to the under-19 women’s national teams for their respective countries and will compete at the 2011 Federation of International Lacrosse U19 World Championship in Germany, in August.

“Having two players represent UMBC in Germany from two different countries is really exciting,” said UMBC head coach Kelly Berger, who is a member of the U.S. National team.

Blevins earned a spot on Team USA’s final 18-player roster despite being injured and unable to play at Champion Challenge in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., where the final cuts were made from the 24-player training team at the end of January.

“That was the most exciting thing, that the coaches didn’t lose faith in her and reserved that spot, which really proves how good she really is,” Berger said. “She is a phenomenal one-on-one defender and gets the concept of defense at such a young age, and that will be huge for us here at UMBC.”

Lyons, who is 5-foot-11, was selected to Team Canada after ranking seventh in provincial U19 scoring in 2009. She is one of 11 players who will compete for NCAA schools next season.

“Being able to use her size to her advantage is huge, especially at her age,” Berger said. “I expect her to come in and hopefully contribute in the midfield for us. Her style is so different being from Canada, which will bring a new kind of feel to UMBC.”

Team USA has won 20 consecutive games in U19 international play dating back to 1999 and has won gold medals in the last three world championships. Team Canada finished fourth at the last world championship, which was played in Peterborough, Ontario, in 2007, and earned bronze in both 2003 and 1999.

Both national teams will regroup May 28-29 at Stony Brook University for the US Lacrosse Women’s National Tournament before moving onto the FIL World Championship Aug. 3-14 in Hannover, Germany.