The U.S. girls’s subject hockey group returns to the Paris Olympics this summer season after lacking the Tokyo Video games.
The People earned a spot within the 12-team event after beating Japan 2-1 within the semifinals of a last-chance qualifier in India, the place the highest three nations earn Olympic berths.
Ashley Hoffman and Abby Tamer scored targets within the fourth quarter to beat the Japanese.
The USA, ranked 12th on the earth, has gone Four-Zero to date on this week’s event, defeating three higher-ranked groups – India (No. 6), New Zealand (11) and Japan (9).
Had the USA misplaced to Japan, they’d have had one final likelihood to qualify for Paris in a third-place match in opposition to India or Germany (ranked fifth on the earth).
The U.S. gained an Olympic medal (bronze in 1984), then positioned eighth on the 1988 Seoul Video games.
It didn’t qualify for the Olympics once more till 2008 (other than mechanically getting into as a bunch nation in 1996). The USA competed in three consecutive Video games from 2008 to 2016, with a greatest end of fifth.
To qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, India defeated the USA 6-5 over two legs within the People’ final likelihood to qualify.
Nobody on this week’s 18-player qualifying roster has Olympic expertise. The oldest participant is 28-year-old Karlie Kisha.
The Olympic roster to be named will likely be 16 gamers, plus as much as three alternates.
Erin Matson, essentially the most well-known title in US subject hockey, didn’t play for the nationwide group this 12 months. At North Carolina, she gained 4 NCAA Championships and three NCAA Participant of the Yr awards from 2018-22.
She was then named head coach in 2023 and in November grew to become one of many youngest head coaches in NCAA historical past throughout all sports activities to win a nationwide title.
“The door (to play for Staff USA) is just not closed, however it’s not open,” she stated in November, in response to Olympics.com. “If the celebrities align and there is a chance, you recognize, to in the future do it and signify my nation once more, then my athletic director, he is aware of if we will make it work and if it is the best time with the best individuals, with the best assets. , you recognize, then let’s do it.”
Correction: An earlier model of this submit had incorrect rankings for groups within the Olympic qualifying event.