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All-American will get a shot at more caps in Nordic Cup 

CHICAGO - All-American forward Laura Schott, who will be a junior on the Cal soccer team this fall, is one of 20 players selected to attend a three-day U.S. under-21 training camp in Rhode Island, July 17-19. Head coach Jerry Smith will then select 18 of those players to represent the United States at the 2001 Women’s U-21 Nordic Cup Championships, being contested in Norway from July 25-31.  

Schott has already made two trips with the under-21 national team this year. Representing the full national team, she played in a friendly against Italy and in the Algarve Cup in March and in May traveled to Mexico to play two exhibitions against the country’s full national team. 

Without a sanctioned FIFA championship for U-21 women, the Nordic Cup serves at the top competition in the world for this age group.  

The eight competing teams are divided into two groups of four, with first-round play consisting of round-robin matches within the group. The group winners will then play for the championship. The two second-place group finishers will play for third place, the third-place finishers for fifth and the last-place finishers will play for seventh. The USA will play in Group A with Iceland, Denmark and Germany while Group B features host Norway, Sweden, Canada and Finland. All the matches will be contested in and around the city of Gjovik, which is approximately 100 kilometers from Oslo.  

Last year, Jillian Ellis led the USA to a 1-0 victory over host Germany to capture the USA’s third Nordic Cup title in the last four years.