CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Three current members of the Virginia women’s soccer team have been tabbed for the roster of the U.S. U23 Women’s National Team for the squads upcoming games against France. Midfielders Lia Godfrey and Alexis Theoret, and defender Laney Rouse will join recent Virginia grad Alexa Spaanstra on the roster for the pair of friendlies.
Virginia goalkeeper coach Sam Raper will also be with the team as an assistant coach.
The games will take place on Feb. 17 and 20 at Clairefontaine, France’s famed National Training Center located outside of Paris.
Several of the Cavaliers selected have previous experience on the international stage as Rouse was a member of the U20 team that competed at the 2022 U20 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Lia Godfrey continues to be the youngest player to have ever suited up for the U17 team when she suited up for the U17 squad in the 2016 U17 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Spaanstra was part of the U20 team that won the Concacaf U-20 Women’s Championship in early 2020 before the World Cup was cancelled due to the global pandemic. Theoret has also seen time on U.S. rosters as she has been with the U16 and U18 teams.
The U.S. team will be coached by Carrie Kveton, a former assistant coach in the NWSL with the Washington Spirit and OL Reign and current Head of Individual Development for FC Nordsjaelland in Denmark. Her assistant coaches will be Margueritte Aozasa, who led UCLA to the NCAA title last season in her first year at the helm of the Bruins, and Julianne Sitch, who became the first woman to lead a men’s soccer team to an NCAA championship when her University of Chicago squad claimed the Division III title last season in her first season at the school. Raper, the goalkeeper coach for the University of Virginia and the USA’s 2022 U-17 Women’s World Cup Team, will handle the goalkeepers.