BLACKSBURG – The U.S. Under-20 Women's National Team started its new cycle this week in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, with 20 players coming together on Monday to begin training for the 2018 Women's Nike International Friendlies, and one of those invited is current Virginia Tech women's soccer player Emily Gray.
Gray, who completed her freshman campaign with the Hokies, is one of six midfielders on the squad, a mixture of college and youth club players who were born in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Players born on or after Jan. 1, 2000 are age-eligible for the 2020 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.
"Playing for the national team is really an honor and something that I take huge pride in," Gray said. "This was one of my goals for the season as an individual, to be a part of the new U-20 cycle. So, just representing my country and putting on the crest is really important to me and it's one of my long-term goals.
"I have a couple international games under my belt, now, so I feel more confident when I'm at camp. It could take some players some time to get used to the different environments and to settle down. You just have to realize that you're just playing soccer. You got here, so you just need to do what you did to get here and then just grow from that."
For the Sewell, New Jersey, native, this will be her first camp with the U-20 WNT, but had been invited to four WNT training camps with the U-18 squad – most recently in May of 2018 – and has played in three international competitions as well.
For Tech this past season, Gray became the 13th Hokie to be named to the ACC All-Freshman Team, but the first since 2014 (Madi Conyers). She led the team with six assists during the season and also added a pair of goals for 10 points, second most on the team behind classmate Karlie Johnson's 12 (six goals).
The midfielder was dangerous on free kicks and took the majority of Tech's corners this season (43), which resulted in several goals. The most notably of them were in the Hokies' 1-0 wins over No. 6 Virginia (9/27), at Louisville (10/25), which put Tech into the ACC Championship tournament, and vs. Arkansas (11/16), advancing the Hokies into the Round of 16 in the NCAA Championship tournament.
"Emily getting the call up to the national team and continuing with her progress with the U.S. is a tremendous accomplishment for her and well deserved," Tech head women's soccer coach Chugger Adair said. "I think she's been dangerous and she's been solid and played a lot of minutes for us this past year and it hasn't gone unnoticed.
"I know when we talk with other coaches and coaches who watch our team, a lot of coaches talk about her impact and they like what they see and that comes unsolicited from me. So, coaches are taking notice of her and it's nice that the national team has taken notice as well. All this experience is helping her grow as a player. We're proud of her and we wish her well and we look forward to getting her back with our group."
This year's Nike International Friendlies will feature three teams – France and China PR along with the USA. The U.S. will take on France on Dec. 7 and China PR on Dec. 9, with both games set to kick off at 6:30 p.m. China will face France on Dec. 11 at 3 p.m. ET. All the matches will take place at the Premier Sports Campus and the USA's two games will be streamed live on ussoccer.com, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. CLICK HERE to go to the official release.