SUSF Elite Athlete Program (EAP) scholarship holders Nina Khoury, Georgina Morgan and Mathilda Carmichael have been selected in the Australian junior women’s hockey squad, the Jillaroos, ahead of the 2013 Women’s Hockey Junior World Cup in July.
Khoury (Bachelor of Commerce/Laws), Morgan (Bachelor of Applied Sciences {Exercise Physiology}) and Carmichael – Sydney Uni Hockey Club (SUHC) representatives – will travel with the rest of 17 woman squad to Japan in June for a four test series against the Japanese ‘A’ team, before the final team selections are made ahead of the U21 World Cup in Germany.
Khoury, who has been heavily entrenched in the 2013 squad since being part of the squad that won gold at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney in January, sees the tour of Japan as another opportunity to put her best foot forward before the final World Cup squad is named on June 25.
“Each time you play for the national team you want to put forward a good performance and prove yourself,” said Khoury.
“It is our last chance to impress before the final squad is named, but I think it will be an accumulation of the games that we have played together. It won’t be based just on one tournament; it will be based on a lot of performances.”
Khoury also takes some satisfaction in being selected in the U21 national squad alongside fellow SUHC team mates Carmichael and Morgan.
“It’s great. It helps a lot at training having us all striving to achieve the same goal in gaining selection. We push each other and it is all about establishing a culture and if we keep going the way that we are going, it should be very successful.”
The Jillaroos’ opponents will be a Japan ‘A’ side comprising their junior squad plus a number of members of the senior Japanese team, which is currently ranked ninth in the world.
If selected in the final squad, Khoury, Carmichael and Morgan will head to Germany on July 17 to play warm up matches against Germany, Korea and Netherlands, before the Junior World Cup runs from July 27 – August 4.
The Jillaroos qualified for the Junior World Cup as the highest ranked Oceania nation earlier this year after they defeated New Zealand in the final of the Oceania Junior Nations Cup.
Australia’s women finished fifth at the last Junior World Cup four years ago in Boston, beating this year’s hosts Germany in a playoff.
