NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Three members of the Notre Dame women’s soccer team will trade their Fighting Irish gold and blue uniforms for the red, white and blue kits of Team USA, as the trio competes with the United States Under-23 National Team during the next week at the Four Nations Tournament in Leicester, England.

Senior All-America defender Lauren Fowlkes (Lee’s Summit, Mo./St. Teresa’s Academy), along with a pair of all-region juniors in forward Melissa Henderson (Garland, Texas/Berkner) and Jessica Schuveiller (Plano, Texas/Plano West) will suit up for the Stars & Stripes in matches against England (today), Norway (Friday) and Sweden (July 12).

Notre Dame is one of only two schools – along with Portland – to have three players selected for the U.S. Under-23 team roster, with Fowlkes and Schuveiller making up half of the four defenders who were named to the squad.

Fowlkes had been a mainstay with U.S. Soccer for the past few years, most notably as a starter with the USA U-20 side that earned the gold medal at the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Chile. Recently, Fowlkes joined the U-23 squad for a three-match tour of Germany, scoring the tying goal in a 2-2 draw with the host nation’s U-23 team on May 26.

The reigning BIG EAST Conference Co-Offensive Player of the Year, as well as a National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) third-team All-American and ESPN second-team Academic All-American, Fowlkes scored a career-high 10 goals and added four assists for Notre Dame last season, helping the Fighting Irish to a 21-4-1 record and their fourth consecutive NCAA Women’s College Cup berth (and fifth in six years) while playing primarily as a forward due to various injuries that plagued the Notre Dame roster.

Henderson joined Fowlkes with Team USA for the German tour earlier this year, scoring twice in the three-match series, first in the tie with Germany, and then netting the opening goal in a 2-2 draw with the South Korea U-20 National Team on May 29.

Henderson tallied a career-best (and team-leading) 18 goals and 41 points for Notre Dame last season, including a record-setting 10 goals in the postseason (seven in the NCAA Championship alone). She also became the first Fighting Irish player to register multiple hat tricks in one postseason, logging three goals in a BIG EAST quarterfinal win over South Florida, then potting a record-tying four goals in an NCAA Championship second-round victory over Central Michigan. Henderson was a Soccer America first-team MVP and an NSCAA first-team all-Northeast Region choice, in addition to garnering second-team all-conference honors.

Schuveiller is a rising star in the USA U-23 program, having first joined its player pool last summer and preparing to make her first international appearances with the United States side this week.

A tri-captain for Notre Dame last season, Schuveiller chalked up two goals and two assists while starting all 26 matches and anchoring a Fighting Irish backline that recorded 16 shutouts and an 0.69 goals-against average (GAA). She also was a second-team all-region and first-team all-BIG EAST selection, in addition to being named the BIG EAST Championship Most Outstanding Defensive Player (Fowlkes collected the tournament’s top offensive award).

Notre Dame kicks off the 2010 season at 1 p.m. Aug. 13 with an exhibition match against Virginia (an `09 NCAA Championship third-round participant) in Traverse City, before starting things up for real at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 20 against Minnesota at Alumni Stadium. It will be the first matchup between the Fighting Irish and Golden Gophers since Notre Dame earned a memorable 1-0 overtime victory in the third round of the 2008 NCAA Championship at old Alumni Field.

Tickets for the 2010 Notre Dame women’s soccer season will soon go on sale at Notre Dame’s Murnane Family Athletics Ticket Office, which can be reached by phone (574) 631-7356, in person through the ticket windows in the new Rosenthal Atrium at Purcell Pavilion (located inside Gate 9) from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. weekdays, or by going online to the tickets page of the official Notre Dame athletics web site (www.UND.com/tickets).
In addition to following all the latest Fighting Irish women’s soccer information through UND.com, fans also can follow the program through its official Twitter news feed (www.twitter.com/NDsoccernews).