SURREY, Canada– Virginia field hockey student-athletes Jans Croon, Daniela Mendez-Trendler and Mia Abello competed at the 2024 Junior Pan American Championships July 3-12 in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, helping to lead the U.S. Junior National Team to a runner-up finish.
The trio helped lead the Junior Eagles to the finals of the U21 tournament after picking up a shootout victory against No. 15 Chile in the semifinals on Wednesday (July 10). After trailing 1-0 for 45 minutes, Croon scored the game-tying goal off a penalty corner in the final 45 seconds of play to tie the game. Mendez-Trendler broke a 2-2 tie in the shootout to put USA up 3-2. After Chile tied it back up, the two teams went to sudden victory shootouts. Team USA made their first attempt and saved Chile’s try to advance to the finals.
In the gold-medal match, No. 2 Argentina held on for a 3-1 victory to give the No. 7 American squad the silver medal. The U.S. team scored its lone goal in the third quarter, with Mendez-Trendler taking a shot off a penalty corner that was deflected into the net by a teammate.
With the runner-up finish, the US U21 team qualifies for the 2025 Junior World Cup.
The Junior Eagles opened the tournament with a 2-1 win against Uruguay, followed by a 4-2 victory against Chile. The squad improved to 3-0 with an 11-0 win against Mexico. After suffering a 3-0 loss against No. 2 Argentina, the Junior Eagles rebounded with a 4-1 victory against host Canada.
Mendez-Trendler has scored three goals with two assists in the tournament. Abello scored a goal with 2 assists. Croon scored 3 goals off penalty corners.
Abello, Croon and Mendez-Trendler were all members of the gold-medal winning US team at the 2023 Junior Pan Am Cup and all played in the 2023 Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile, in December of last year.