Five Bulls Play in Donnelly Cup



TAMPA, Fla. – Five University of South Florida women's soccer players competed for the Florida Select Team in the 2008 George F. Donnelly Cup held at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., last weekend.



Bulls Mallori Lofton-Malachi, AnnaLea Crowe, Melanie Sutherland, Paulina McIntosh and Autumn Browning were on the Florida Select Team that won the Region III title in June, qualifying the squad for the Donnelly Cup.



In the Donnelly Cup, the Florida team played Massachusetts on Saturday (L, 4-0), tied Utah 1-1 on Sunday and dropped the final game of the weekend 2-1 to Minnesota.



"It was a challenge to play against the other states, but nothing that we couldn't handle," said Sutherland, who will be a senior for the Bulls in 2008. "Our team bonded pretty well, and we played as a group throughout the Cup. It helped to have so many players from USF, allowing us to mesh much quicker."



Utah defeated Massachusetts 2-1 on Jan. 21 to win the women's division of the 2008 Donnelly Cup.



The United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA), the governing body of adult soccer in the United States, hosted the event, which kicked off the Martin Luther King holiday weekend.



The George F. Donnelly Cup serves as the national championship for the USASA Elite Player Program, a program offered to high level players, who after several tryouts, become part of the Select Team of their state, consequently participating in regional tournaments with hopes to make it to the big national championship held annually.

Players who compete in the tournament will have an opportunity to be selected to the USASA National Select Team, with the opportunity of going on national and international tours.