Penn State women's soccer freshman midfielder Christine Nairn and senior goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher will attend a 10-day U.S. Senior National Team training camp Dec. 5-15 in Carson, Calif.
"Both of them are ready for that level," Nittany Lions coach Erica Walsh said. "Obviously Christine's been there. Alyssa missed an opportunity with her injury, but I'm thrilled that they're getting a chance to go in."
Walsh will also travel to the camp to serve as an assistant coach on team, focusing her efforts on defensive play. Naeher missed last summer's training period while recovering from a posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injury and is excited for the camp.
The senior will share keeper duties with Hope Solo and Nicole Barnhart, and said she wants to have a strong week in training and hopefully prove herself. Playing with two players with as much international experience as Solo and Barnhart is something Naeher is looking forward to.
"They've been in with this team for a long time and Hope is one of the best in the world, if not the best in the world," Naeher said. "I'm definitely looking forward to the opportunity to be able to train with them for those 10 days in a very individual environment. I'm going to try and learn from them as much as I can and take different things from training."
Nairn played with the senior team this summer and said the age of the players on the team factors into socializing. The freshman said having Naeher in camp gives her someone to talk with and turn to for advice.
With the camp a few weeks away, Naeher said she would do some training at home over break and when she gets back to Penn State.
The senior had been wearing a knee brace all season that broke during the season-ending loss to Virginia, but Naeher said she is having a new one made.
Travelling out to California will give both players the chance to play soccer and start to put the Virginia game behind them.
"Any time you end the season, or any time you lose a game for that matter, all you want to do is play another one to kind of erase the previous one from your head," Naeher said. "It will definitely be nice to get another game and kind of be able to put the Virginia game behind me."
Both players and Walsh said they were looking forward to spending 10 days in California and missing out on the beginning of December in State College.
Walsh commended both players on working with their professors to work out assignments and finals.
Last spring, Nairn had to leave for the U-20 FIFA World Cup less than a week after enrolling, but now having a semester under her, the freshman said she isn't stressed and can focus on soccer and class.
Nairn said both college and the national level have helped her game grow, and taking the physical nature of the Big Ten into camp will give her experience she didn't have in July. Having adjusted to college soccer after coming from the national team, Nairn said it may take "a few practices" to get re-acquainted with the more technical pace of the national level.
"Being more technical, the U.S. has been able to call itself one of the best countries in the world because we pay so much attention to our technical game," Nairn said.
"Fitness wise its going to be another factor and just playing soccer because of how everybody plays around the world, Brazil and Germany are always slinging passes around and it takes time to get used to the speed."
