BALTIMORE– US Lacrosse has named the players that will participate for the United States men’s team during its exhibition game against Duke University as part of the Champions Challenge Weekend from Jan. 26-27, 2008 at Disney’s Wide World of Sports® Complex near Orlando.

The 21-player U.S. roster includes nine players from the 2006 U.S. team that competed in the International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) World Championship in Canada, helping the U.S. to the silver medal. All 21 players participated in the tryout process for the 2006 U.S. team.

Among the players on the U.S. team are John Gagliardi, an all-world defenseman at the 2006 ILF championship; Kyle Harrison, the 2005 Tewaaraton Trophy winner as the nation’s top collegiate player; Doug Shanahan, the MVP of the 2002 ILF championship; and Matt Striebel, the MVP of the 2007 Major League Lacrosse championships when he helped Philadelphia to its third league title in the last four years. Michael Caravana and Matt Kerwick, assistant coaches for the 2006 U.S. men’s team, will serve as the U.S. team coaches in the Champions Challenge event.

The third annual Champions Challenge will feature both the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams. The women’s Elite and Developmental teams will play exhibition games against the women’s programs from Duke and Johns Hopkins in addition to the men’s game against Duke. Both the men’s and women’s teams will also conduct clinics for local youth players as part of the weekend’s events.

"We’re very excited to bring both our men’s and women’s national teams to Florida for this joint event," said Jody Martin, Men’s Division Director for US Lacrosse. "There is a lot of enthusiasm from both the national teams and the college teams for this event and we’re looking forward to a great weekend of lacrosse. Our men’s program would like to thank Duke University for participating. It’s a distinct honor to play against such an outstanding program."

US Lacrosse, a 501(c)(3) corporation, is the national governing body for men’s and women’s lacrosse. US Lacrosse has more than 200,000 members around the country.

The U.S. men’s team roster follows:

Attack
Nicholas Bonacci (Long Island Lizards/Dartmouth ’07)
Kyle Dixon (Washington Bayhawks/Virginia '06)
Conor Gill (Washington Bayhawks/Virginia '06)
Tim Goettelman (Long Island Lizards/Loyola ’01)
Sean Morris (Chicago Machine/Massachusetts ‘06)
*Joe Walters (Rochester Rattlers/Maryland ’06)

Midfield
Stephen Berger (Long Island Lizards/Washington College ’04)
Ben DeFelice (Boston Cannons/Towson ’04)
*Kyle Harrison (New Jersey Pride/Johns Hopkins ’05)
Sean Lindsay (Los Angeles Riptide/Syracuse ’04)
*Blake Miller (Long Island Lizards/Hofstra ’96)
*Doug Shanahan (Chicago Machine/Hofstra ’01)
*Matt Striebel (Philadelphia Barrage/Princeton ’01)

Defense
Joe Ceglia (Philadelphia Barrage/Syracuse '00)
*Christian Cook (Washington Bayhawks/Princeton ’98)
*Ryan Curtis (Boston Cannons/Virginia ’00)
*John Gagliardi (Long Island Lizards/Johns Hopkins ’97)
Brett Hughes ((Los Angeles Riptide/Virginia '04)
Zac Jungers (Denver Outlaws/Princeton ’07)

Goal
*Chris Garrity (Washington Bayhawks/Penn State ’03)
Michael Levin (Rochester Rattlers/Brown ’04)

* indicates member of 2006 U.S. men’s team


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