USL News Release
Friday, May 9
VENTURA, CA -- The W-League will celebrate the beginning of a three-team rivalry in the greater Los Angeles area with the opening game of the Western Conference play Saturday night when the Ventura County Fusion play host to the Pali Blues at 8:00 pm ET.
Neither club is, at its core, new to USL. Ventura County enters the W-League after successful debut in the Premier Development League on the men’s side last year, narrowly missing the playoffs by two points with a record of 9-4-3. On the other side, Pali is a completely new club, but is directed by General Manager and Head Coach Charlie Naimo, who has one of the most successful resumes in the history of the W-League.
Having a record of 59-4-1 over the course of three seasons with the New Jersey Wildcats and one with Jersey Sky Blue as well as the 2005 W-League Championship, the pressure is arguably on Naimo and his star-laden squad to reach the same heights that his previous teams did.
Among the players on the squad are Danesha Adams, Elizabeth Bogus, Kendell Fletcher, Amy LePeilbet, Manya Makoski and Jill Oakes several of whom have played for Naimo previously. The club also has a trio of Matildas from the 2007 Australian Women’s World Cup squad that was the surprise of the tournament and Canadian international Sasha Andrews.
Fusion Head Coach Michelle Myers is excited about the start of the new season and about assembling her squad. “We’re going to be juggling the roster for the first few weeks because not all our players are available at the same time, but once we get all the pieces put together I think we’re going to have a very good team,” said Myers.
Myers is currently working with a pool of 32 players that includes players with Division One college experience, USA junior internationals, and several local girls returning to play on home turf. Missing for the first three games will be headliners Kasey Moore (Texas) and Ashley Nick (USC) who are with the USA U-23 National Team in Germany until May 21st.
“The girls have shown a great attitude and worked hard in training. You can’t fault their enthusiasm. We have one player who has commuted from Orange County for every training session and one player who has moved here from Hawaii for the summer just to play for us.”
The commuter with the 150-mile round trip is Madison Klovstad, a speedy goal-scoring forward from Texas A&M who was part of the Aggies’ Big 12 Conference Championship team. Shari Nishikawa lives in Kaneohe and has been working at the Honolulu Zoo as a zoo-keeper after graduating from Loyola Marymount University where defensive performances earned her a “Player of the Year” accolade. They are joined by two more members of USC’s 2007 NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship team, midfielder-forward Megan Ohai and defender Kasey Johnson. Johnson and Ohai have been in national pools since the age of sixteen.
“Both women were invited to join the USA u-20 national squad this summer,” said Myers, “but chose to play here so they could do some other things as well.”
