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Four W. Soccer Alums Could Play in WUSA

When former Harvard women's soccer captain Beth Zotter '00 was selected by the New York Power with the 29th overall pick of the inaugural WUSA draft last December, she predicted that fellow Crimson alumni Jessica Larson '00, Ashley Berman '00 and Emily Stauffer '98-'99 would someday find roster spots in the new professional women's soccer league.

She was right on all accounts.

Larson and Stauffer will be joining Zotter on the Power's 28-player training camp roster, while Berman will be attending the Boston Breakers' training camp.

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The WUSA preseason camps will begin this week. Players will be competing for 20 final roster spots, to be determined by Apr. 2.

Each WUSA team had acquired about 24 players through the drafts and allocations, leaving four openings on each team to be filled by open team tryouts.

Both Stauffer and Berman were too occupied to attend the WUSA Combine and Draft in December. Stauffer was committed to Teach for America, a program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in underprivileged rural and urban schools for two years, while Berman was in Australia on a work visa. The team tryouts provided them both with a more timely opportunity to break into the league.

Larson attended the combine with Zotter, but was passed over in all 15 rounds of the draft. Larson--the 1999 Ivy League Player of the Year--believed at the time that her lack of prior Olympic Development Program exposure was the main reason for her omission and that the team tryouts would give her a better to chance to showcase her abilities.

Power Coach Pat Farmer, who was the head coach of Penn State prior to November, gave Larson her second chance.

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