BATON ROUGE — LSU senior and consensus All-American Malorie Rutledge will travel to Carson, Calif., on Wednesday to join the Under-23 U.S. Women’s National Team for its first training camp of the 2010 season being held through Jan. 20 at the Home Depot Center.
Rutledge, who also trained with the U-23 U.S. National Team in January 2007, is one of 24 players from across the country invited by head coach Bill Irwin to attend the week-long training camp.
She will join a star-studded field that includes four players currently competing in Women’s Professional Soccer, including defenders Allison Falk and Nikki Krzysik of the Philadelphia Independence, midfielder Allie Long of the Washington Freedom and defender Elise Weber of St. Louis Athletica. Rutledge is also one of seven WPS draft eligible seniors, 11 college juniors and two sophomores invited to the camp.
The week includes two fixtures against the full South Korean Women’s National Team, which is training in Southern California for the next three weeks.
A native of Sharpsburg, Ga., Rutledge is certainly among the top prospects eligible to be selected by clubs participating in the 2010 WPS Draft on Friday in Philadelphia as part of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Annual Convention.
“Malorie has made a tremendous commitment to improve her level of play throughout her four years here at LSU, and I know she is excited about the opportunity to measure herself with the U-23s this week,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “She has been a joy for me to coach these last few years and I am excited to see where the next stage of her career will lead. One lucky WPS team will be drafting a great player.”
Rutledge has wrapped up her collegiate career as the most decorated player to ever wear the LSU uniform. She is a three-time All-American and three-time first-team All-SEC selection, while she has also been named the SEC Offensive Player of the Year in each of the past two seasons.
Rutledge enjoyed a 2009 season in which she scored a career high 13 goals and dished out 12 assists for a career high 38 points. She leaves LSU as the school’s all-time career leader in assists (46) and points scored (102), while she ranks fourth all-time with 28 career goals.
Rutledge has been a catalyst in LSU’s run of three-straight SEC Western Division titles and three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances while racking up a senior class record of 50 wins in four seasons.