Four Bruins to Compete at Concacaf Under-20 Championships
February 21, 2020 | Women's Soccer
Four members of the UCLA women's soccer team are competing in the 2020 Concacaf Women's Under-20 Championships, set to begin Feb. 22 in the Dominican Republic. Two FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup qualifying spots are up for grabs in the tournament. The four Bruins are representing four different countries in three groups โ Mia Fishel is with the U.S. squad, Maricarmen Reyes with Mexico, Jackie Gilday with Nicaragua and Kaila Novak with Canada.
Fishel and the U.S. team are in Group C and will open its tournament on Feb. 22 against Cuba at 3pm ET/12pm PT in Santo Domingo. Also playing at the same time in San Cristobal are Novak and Team Canada, who will play El Salvador in their Group E opener. Reyes and Gilday are both in Group D and will open play on Feb. 23 in Santo Domingo. Reyes and Mexico face Puerto Rico at 3pm ET/12pm PT, followed by Gilday and Nicarauga against Guyana at 6pm ET/3pm PT.
Group play continues on Feb. 24 with USA taking on the Dominican Republic and Canada facing Guatemala at 3pm ET/12pm PT. On Feb. 25, it will be Bruin vs. Bruin when Nicaragua faces Mexico at 6pm ET/3pm PT. The last group play matchups will see USA vs. Honduras on Feb. 26 at 6pm ET/3pm PT, Canada vs. Jamaica on Feb. 26 at 3pm ET/12pm PT, Nicarauga vs. Puerto Rico on Feb. 27 at 3pm ET/12pm PT, and Mexico vs. Guyana on Feb. 27 at 6pm ET/3pm PT.
The top three teams from each group advance to the Round of 16, which begins the knockout stage. The winners of the Mar. 6 semifinal matches will qualify to the U-20 World Cup in Costa Rica/Panama and advance to the finals on Mar. 8 to battle for the Concacaf championship.
To view the full schedule for the Concacaf Women's Under-20 Championship, click here.Fishel enjoyed a tremendous freshman season in 2019, leading the Bruins with 14 goals, six game-winning goals and 31 points. She was UCLA's leading scorer in the postseason as well, totaling five goals and 11 points. Fishel was selected to Top Drawer Soccer's Freshman Best XI team and earned Pac-12 All-Freshman honors and third-team All-Pac-12 acclaim. This will be Fishel's third Concacaf Championship; she scored the go-ahead goal for the U-17s in the semifinals to give the team a World Cup berth in 2018, and in 2016, she won the Golden Ball at the U-15 Championship.
Reyes scored three goals with three assists in just 11 games in 2019 after undergoing two offseason surgeries. In just her second game back, she scored a late game-winning goal to beat Washington. In 2018, Reyes played in 21 games and was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team. Reyes helped lead Mexico to a gold medal at the 2018 Concacaf Championships and to a silver medal at the 2016 Concacaf U-17 Championships.
Gilday played in eight games during her freshman season in 2019. She played for Nicaragua at the 2018 U-20 Concacaf Championships.
Novak, who enrolled at UCLA in January 2020 and will be a freshman in the upcoming season, played on Canada's bronze medal-winning team at the 2018 Concacaf U-17 Championship and played with the team at the 2018 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
