New for the 2011-2012 seasons, the America East Daily Word, a collaboration between AmericaEast.com and AExtra, will recap the previous day's games and on goings on our nine campuses and provide links to features, recaps, previews and exclusive coverage.
Don't
look now, but America East teams are making some serious noise around the
nation.
As
a matter of fact, the conference success stretches to international soil this
fall.
Most
athletes would agree that the biggest honor you can receive as a competitor is
to be invited to represent your country on the world stage. Two soccer players from Hartford received
exciting phone calls during the past few weeks.
Hartford
women's soccer midfielder Amelia Pereira and men's soccer defender Jorge
Rodriguez answered those phones. Pereira
just returned from a two-game stint with her native Portugal. She helped her country earn two
friendly-match victories over Turkey last week.
Rodriguez is currently with Puerto Rico’s national team playing in two
World Cup qualifying matches against St. Kitts and Nevis and Canada.
The
Hartford Courant featured the two student-athletes detailing their respective paths
to international competition. For both,
playing for their native countries is a dream come true but comes at a tough
time as their fall seasons with the Hawks kick into full gear. And the commitment to the national squads
could become tougher with both likely to be called again later in the fall during
the thick of conference play. Pereira
missed one collegiate game during her trip but the Hartford women are off to a
fast and impressive 3-0-1 start. The men
could have used Rodriguez on Saturday in a 1-0 defeat to Fordham but he will be
back after Puerto Rico’s match today against Canada.
"This says a lot for
Hartford," Hartford women's coach John Natale told the Courant. "We're
recruiting top level players to come here and I think in the future it will
help [the programs out]…"
For more of the 'Word' check out the AExtra Blog.