Two UVa Field Hockey Athletes to Compete for USA at Pan Am Junior Championships

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March 2, 2005

Virginia field hockey student-athletes Katherine Blair (Louisville, Ky./Kentucky Country Day) and Mia Link (Jenkintown, Pa./Jenkintown) have been named to the USA Under-21 Junior Pan American Championships team as announced by USA Field Hockey after February training sessions in Virginia Beach, Va. Blair is a two-year veteran of the team while this is Link’s first stint with the Junior National team.

Blair served as the starting keeper for the Junior Nationals in the summer of 2004 during the US Field Hockey Summer League Series and was in the cage as the Juniors won the title in strokes. She has previously served on the USA Under-19 team, winning a bronze medal at the 2002 Cal Cup.

Link earned third team All-American honors in 2004 after Link led Virginia in scoring with 15 goals and five assists, giving her 35 points on the year. She ranked among the national leaders all year long and had one of the highest point-production days of the year with a four-goal, two-assist performance in the Cavaliers’ opener against Bucknell. Her 10-point performance is the second-highest single-game total in Virginia history. The next day Link scored a pair of goals against Appalachian State, and she was honored in Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd for her performance on the week.

Link had two game-winning goals and a game-winning assist in 2004, including a reverse-stick chip shot in extra time against James Madison to help Virginia defeat the Dukes on the road. She played for the Philadelphia Fury in the 2004 Summer League.

The USA Under-21 Team is under the direction of legendary USA player Tracey Fuchs, the Junior Nationals Coach. The Stars and Stripes open play on March 16 with a game against Uruguay at 5:00 pm. The USA is in the same pool as Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay and is looking to qualify for the Junior World Games which will take place in September 2005 in Santiago, Chile.