The next step has come in junior Katy Cross' soccer career.
Penn's all-time points and goals leader in women's soccer was among 25 collegiate players called into the United States Under-21 Women's National team camp on Monday. The team is practicing this week and next week at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.
"It's an amazing feeling that's hard to put into words really," Cross said in a press release. "If things go well and I continue to play at a high level, then great. If not, at least I know that I was given the chance to prove myself."
Under-21 National team coach Chris Petrucelli will select 18 players from the camp to travel to this summer's Nordic Cup, the premier international tournament at that level, to be held in Iceland. Five participants in the camp were NSCAA All-Americans last season -- including Princeton's Esmeralda Negron, last season's Ivy League Player of the Year.
Penn women's soccer coach Darren Ambrose lauded Cross as an honoree whose time had come.
"Being recognized for the accomplishments she has achieved in her career at Penn is a great honor," he said in the press release. "We have always perceived her as one of the best forwards in the country and now she's getting recognition for that. It's a great honor for her to get the opportunity to represent our country."
Ambrose worked with U.S. Under-19 Women's National team coach Mark Krikorian on the Philadelphia Charge staff before the Women's United Soccer Association went out of business last year. Krikorian has attended Penn games at Rhodes Field in the past, and had former Dartmouth player Mary McVeigh on his WUSA team last season.
But Ambrose insisted that this had nothing to do with the selection, citing instead, "a network of coaches" across the country that communicate with each other to find out about collegiate talent.
The camp runs until April 25, with the Nordic Cup scheduled from July 19-30.
