BLACKSBURG – Current Virginia Tech women's soccer player Emily Gray, a rising sophomore, has been invited back to train with the U.S. Under-20 Women's National Team, who will be taking part in the Women's U-19 La Manga Tournament in La Manga, Spain. The team left yesterday and will be gone until its final match on March 5.
It's the U-20s' second tournament, as the team competed in last December's Nike International Friendlies, which Gray started in both matches. The team is currently in the early stages of the 2019-20 cycle with the goal of qualifying for the 2020 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.
"Representing my country is super cool," Gray said. "It was really surreal, last camp, to play an international game on home soil and hearing the national anthem, and seeing all the fans – more than I had ever played in front of before. I was just really honored to be able to be on the field and being able to play in front of all those younger girls who were watching."
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.
"That experience for me in in Florida (at the Nike Friendlies) was very different because I felt I was a veteran for the first time, and I felt like I grew as a leader," Gray said. "I was able to settle in and I was more comfortable on the ball. I trained really well and that affected the way I played in the game. I thought my mentality during the whole camp was good and I hope to keep that going into this camp as well."
For the Sewell, New Jersey, native, this will be her second camp with the U-20 WNT, but had been invited to four WNT training camps with the U-18 squad and has played in three international competitions as well, and that includes the La Manga Tournament in Spain in March 2018 with the U-18 team.
"Last year, in La Manga, it was a totally different team," Gray said. "I was in high school then, but it was a really good experience for me because we played some really good European teams – Norway, The Netherlands and England – and it was just a great trip."
The USA will face the Under-19 sides from Germany on March 1, France on March 3 and Sweden on March 5 in La Manga but the opponents will feature players from the same birth years as the U.S. team as it embarks on the first year of the new two-year cycle. The friendly competition will feature 14 countries in all, in addition to the USA and its three opponents, China, Denmark, England, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland will also participate.