WACO, TX — Baylor freshmen Aquira DeCosta, Queen Egbo and NaLyssa Smith accepted invitations along with 27 other athletes to compete for a spot on the 2019 USA Women’s U19 World Cup Team. The trials take place May 16-19 in Colorado Springs, Colo. at the United States Olympic Training Center.
Following the trials, a selection process will take place to narrow the field to the 12-member team with training camp to follow July 5-19, and then this year’s U19 World Cup competition takes place in Bangkok, Thailand July 20-28.
Louisville’s Jeff Walz will serve as the head coach for the team along with Delaware head coach Natasha Adair and UCLA head coach Cori Close, who will serve as assistants.
The field of athletes include 16 players that just finished their freshman year at an NCAA Division I school, 10 high school graduates and four from the high school class of 2020.
Smith won a gold medal with USA Basketball at the 2018 USA U18 World Cup in Mexico City while DeCosta was a bronze medalist in 2016 with the U17 World Cup Team. Egbo was selected as a member of the 2018 USA U18 World Cup team last year, but she elected to arrive at Baylor in July to jumpstart her collegiate career.
The freshman trio is fresh off the 2019 NCAA Division I Championship, Baylor’s third in program history.
