Four Players, Two Coaches on Team USA
January 09, 2016 | Softball
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A total of six past, current and future Bruins will represent the Red, White and Blue this summer as players and coaches on the 2016 U.S. Women's National Team and USA Softball Women's Elite Team.
The four Bruin players are alum Ally Carda, junior Delaney Spaulding, freshman Paige Halstead and 2017 freshman Madilyn Nickles, while the two coaches are Tairia Flowers and Gina Vecchione. Carda and Spaulding were each named to the Women's National Team, while Halstead and Nickles will play for the Elite Team, which will be guided by head coach Flowers and assistant Vecchione.
All four Bruin athletes were selected among the 40 who participated at this week's selection camp in Irvine. The WNT members will compete later this summer in the World Cup of Softball XI, the XV World Baseball Softball Confederation Women's World Championship and the Japan Cup. The Elite Team will participate in a series of exhibition games against the WNT, as well as contests at the USA Softball JO Cup, in addition to the World Cup.
Carda, who is in her first season as an assistant coach at Cal Poly, had an outstanding summer in her first year with the U.S. Women's National Team in 2015, culminating with a Most Valuable Player accolade at the Japan Cup in August. Carda helped the Red, White and Blue win gold, appearing in three of four games in the circle and posting a 0.00 earned run average in 14 innings with eight strikeouts, nine hits and six walks allowed. Team USA had a 16-3 record and won two gold medals last summer (World Cup of Softball in July), as well as a silver at the Pan American Games in July. Carda recorded a team-low 0.38 ERA in the three tournaments.
Spaulding will be putting on the USA uniform for the first time this summer. She is coming off a sophomore campaign for UCLA in which she was named NFCA West All-Region First Team and All-Pac-12 First Team. Spaulding led the Bruins in 2015 with 72 runs batted in and tied for the team lead with 20 home runs, placing second with a .397 batting average. She was also first with an .852 slugging, 69 runs scored, 20 doubles, six sacrifice flies and 12 sacrifice hits, while finishing second with 19 multiple-RBI games, 37 walks and three triples. Spaulding ranked in the Top 25 nationally in five statistical categories.
Halstead was a member of the U.S. Junior Women's National Team, which won the 2015 WBSC Junior Women's World Championship last August. She played in four contests, going 4-for-8 (.500) with five runs batted in, four runs, a double, a stolen base and a walk. Halstead, who will begin her collegiate career next month, also finished fifth at the World Cup of Softball.
With Team USA last summer, Nickles played in 14 games at the World Cup of Softball and World Championships, posting a homer, 14 RBI and six walks. She was the only high school player invited to the selection camp. Nickles will finish up her high school career at Merced HS this spring after signing her National Letter of Intent with UCLA last November.