Kai aiming for top tournament

By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Despite playing in soccer tournaments abroad and against some of the world's top competition, University of Hawai'i forward Natasha Kai might face her toughest challenge next week at a training camp with her U.S. Under-21 National Team teammates.

Kai

"(Coach Chris Petrucelli) said this was the important one because this is the team that is going to Nordic Cup," Kai said of the upcoming camp.

Kai, the two-time defending Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year, has a team-high seven goals in eight games for the U-21 National Team.

The United States has won six of the past seven Nordic Cups, including five straight. The prestigious competition will be held in Iceland from July 23 to 29.

Like she does for every training camp or trip with the U-21 National Team, Kai will have to fight for a spot with the other players in the national team pool. However, to make the Nordic Cup roster, she will be competing with players who are in full-time Olympic Residency Camp with the U.S. Women's National Team.

Some of them could travel to Iceland if they do not make the 2004 Olympic Team.

Kai, who led the nation in scoring with 29 goals last year, said she is looking forward to next week's camp, saying, "It's always exciting to get called back.

"I have to go into camp thinking there's a spot for me, and I have to play to my ability."

She said after working on things like checking to the ball and combination plays the past few months, her game has greatly improved since January, when she attended her first U-21 National team camp.

And Petrucelli agrees.

"She's done well since we started in January," he said. "I think she's proven that she can score goals against any team in the world. She's scored against a lot of quality teams."

He said he has asked her to improve on her fitness level, saying he believes Kai has been able to get by on her outstanding athletic ability on all levels, including college.

"Tasha, I think, has been able to dominate games most of her life in spurts," he said. "She'll work hard for a couple of minutes, score a goal, and maybe she'll do that once or twice a game. It was because she can, that's why she did it. Now we're talking about a whole different ball game."

Kai said she has been training in Hawai'i, and just competed in a local women's tournament with UH teammates Joelle Sugai and Krystalynn Ontai. She also helps out at the Hawai'i Speed & Quickness Clinics with UH's Rich Miano and Mel deLaura.

Kai, who is the only female from Hawai'i listed in any of the National Team player pools, has had several high points this year with the U-21 National Team. But in April, she learned of the death of one of her teammates, University of Nebraska's Jenna Cooper.

"She was the first person I met in January," Kai said of Cooper, who died after being shot in the throat at a party in Lincoln, Neb. "I found out an hour after she died, one of my teammates called me. She was super cool, she was super nice to me."

Kai, who leaves tomorrow to rejoin her U-21 teammates at the National Training Center in Carson, Calif., said she is focusing on making the Nordic Cup roster, and that her experience with the national team can only help her next season with the Rainbow Wahine.

She said she is fortunate to be able to join her UH teammates in August for the start of the soccer season, after missing more than four weeks last semester because of obligations to the U-21 National Team.

"I'm really relieved, it was hard and I was stressing out during finals because I didn't know what was going to happen," Kai said. "But it all came out good, so I can play."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.