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Olivia Wade's phenomenal freshman year continues to be stacked with accomplishments. After helping lead the Davis Darts to the Class 5A state crown in the fall and committing to Brigham Young University shortly thereafter, the talented goal-scorer has been named to the United States women's national team's U-17 roster for the upcoming NTC Invitational in Carson, Calif.
Wade is among 20 youth national-team athletes called up by U-17 coach B.J. Snow for the four-team tournament that will also feature Japan, Mexico and Canada. The event spans Feb. 11-15. Each match day — Feb. 11, 13 and 15 — will feature doubleheaders with the U.S. playing the second match of each day. The winner of the tournament will be based on total points accumulated from the first two tie-breakers, being overall goal differential and total goals scored. All six matches will be streamed live on ussoccer.com.
Of the 20 players called into the tournament, 14 were born in 1999, which happens to be the age cut-off for the next U-17 women's World Cup cycle. That includes Wade, who was also called into a camp of 24 players Jan. 3-10 in Lakeland Ranch, Fla., ahead of the NTC Invitational.
"At this point in the cycle we want to continuously asses both individual player development and team development," said Snow in a release Tuesday. "There is no better way to accomplish this than to compete against highly sophisticated and organized teams in a tournament environment. This should give us a great indication of where we are as team with a little over a year left before World Cup Qualifying."
Wade also plays competitively locally for the La Roca Futbol Club. She scored 10 goals as a freshman, but none more important than the game-winning penalty kick in the 54th minute of the 5A state championship on Oct. 24. The Darts defeated Lone Peak 2-1 at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy to win the title. Wade is the younger sister of Davis basketball star Jesse Wade, who is committed to play at Gonzaga University.
-Chris Kamrani
Twitter: @CKTribune