ympians. It also could have seven world champions, eight if Morgan Brian reclaims a spot after dealing with a hamstring injury.We have a lot of new faces in their first world championship

Charli Collier, a 6-foot-5 center and the No. 7 prospect in the espnW HoopGurlz Super 60 for the 2018 class, has verbally committed to Connecticut.After an overwhelming amount of interest from great programs across the country, I narrowed my choices down to Texas [and] Southern California before deciding on Connecticut, the junior at Barbers Hill (Mont Belvieu, Texas) said. Coach [Geno] Auriemma and his staff are amazing people. Spending time with them and the team, seeing the chemistry that is there indicated to me that this was it.Coach Auriemma gave me goals before each game I played and then would check back with me to see if I met those goals. No other coach did that. He told me he could make me a better player. He is a special coach.Special coach meets special player.With superior size and off-the-charts agility, Collier has the ability to consistently finish plays in the block or stretch the defender to the arc. Collier, who was ranked the No. 1 prospect in the nation as a sophomore, seems to be on a mission to regain that spot, dominating opponents early this season. Last year as a sophomore, Collier started in all 35 games and averaged 24.6 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.She won a bronze medal during the summer with Team USA at the FIBA U17 world championships in Zaragoza, Spain, averaging 5.7 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.Collier, who had reopened her recruitment after committing to Texas in eighth grade, intends to major in broadcast journalism in Storrs.This is the first commitment in the class of 2018 for the Huskies, who are on a 79-game winning streak and play Tennessee-Chattanooga on Tuesday. Earlier this month, Connecticut celebrated the No. 2 2017 class in the country after getting signatures from No. 1 Megan Walker, No. 14 Mikayla Coombs, No. 29 Lexi Gordon and No. 37 Andra Espinoza-Hunter.In addition to her immense talent, Collier will take a promise to Storrs, one she made to herself after the death of her dad, Elliott Don Collier, who passed away in April after a battle with cancer.I feel I owe it to him to be successful and be legendary in this life, Collier said this spring. He has inspired me and impacted me so much. Chris Davis Jersey . Wilson hit Schenn from behind during Tuesday nights game in Philadelphia, earning a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct. He has a phone hearing with the department of player safety, which limits any potential suspension to five or fewer games. Mark Trumbo Jersey . Third-seeded Murray had the easiest path to victory on New Years Eve, barely breaking a sweat during his 6-0, 6-0 win over 2,129th-ranked Qatari wildcard recipient Mousa Shanan Zayed. http://www.theoriolesteamshop.com/Orioles-Zach-Britton-Kids-Jersey/ . Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach. Colby Rasmus Jersey . -- An ugly goal by Nick Bonino helped the Anaheim Ducks overcome the defensive-minded Phoenix Coyotes on a night when their ragged power play continued to struggle. Brad Brach Jersey . Calgary scored on the first shift, and Michael Cammalleri scored twice as the Flames cruised to a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday. BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil -- Several members of the U.S. Olympic womens soccer team faced a history pop quiz of sorts when they met the media in advance of Wednesdays opening game against New Zealand. The largely Brazil-based media contingent wanted to talk about the last major tournament game played at the Estadio Mineirao, a mens World Cup semifinal two years ago that did not go the host teams way. Decidedly so.Yes, Kelley OHara replied, she remembered watching Brazil and Germany play that day.No, Hope Solo said, she didnt imagine another 7-1 scoreline would unfold in this tournament.They played along, but their focus is less on any history already made and more on history yet to be written.Already the only country to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in womens soccer, the United States is attempting to make it four in a row. Doing so would guarantee another unprecedented feat: becoming the first team to win World Cup and Olympic titles in back-to-back years.The only way to claim such prizes is to play like the experienced team that this group is.And not like the inexperienced team ... that this group also is.More than half of the U.S. roster is taking part in the Olympics for the first time. That is notable turnover for a team that won gold four years ago in the London Games. Yet only four players in Brazil are part of a major tournament roster for the first time.More to the point, only four players havent won a major title.Given that 2011 World Cup champion Japan didnt qualify for this Olympics and only six players remain from Germanys 2007 World Cup championship team, the American roster that has so many Olympic rookies also owns a near monopoly on experience winning an event of the same magnitude as whats about to unfold across Brazil.The starting lineup Wednesday could have six first-time Olympians. It also could have seven world champions, eight if Morgan Brian reclaims a spot after dealing with a hamstring injury.We have a lot of new faces in their first world championship, and then we have a lot of world champions, as well, midfielder Tobin Heath said. So in that way I think its great because we have that depth of experience, but we also have this great energy about the team that everyone is excited to be here because this is a world championship. Everyone wants to play their role.The United States first opponent is evidence that this tournament is tricky in its own fashion. Though New Zealand hasnt beaten the U.S. women in the World Cup and in the Olympics era (New Zealands lone win in the series came in 1987), it is not the pushover it once was. The United States won 4-0 in the most recent meeting a year ago, but the margin was just 9-3 in the four relatively recent games that preceded that encounter. That included a 1-1 draw on American soil in 2013.Compare that to a 34-1 U.S. goal advantage in seven meetings between 1993 and 2008.Especially in a group without either African entrant -- both South Africa and Zimbabwe are untested programs at this level -- these Olympics offer the Americans little breathing room and even less time to catch their breath. Assuming the U.S. women advance from Group G, they will play their first four games in 10 days, compared to a 15-day span for the Americans first four games in last years World Cup. And if the United States doesnt win Group G, that fourth game might well be a quarterfinal against Germany. Things can go wrong quickly in the Olympics.Add to it that the Americans enter the game againsst New Zealand with at least moderate injury question marks.dddddddddddd Coach Jill Ellis said Tuesday that Brian, Heath and Megan Rapinoe are all actively training and available. She made it sound as if Rapinoe would be counted on more in the future, which wouldnt be unlike the situation Ellis managed with Alex Morgan at the outset of the World Cup a year ago, while Brian and Heath are closer to unencumbered options.All the more reason the United States needs to play from the outset like a team that has been here before.And for as much talk as there is about turnover and new faces, understandably, some have been here before. Likely starters Morgan, OHara and Becky Sauerbrunn were Olympic rookies in 2012; now they are the experience. Carli Lloyd is after her third gold medal, perhaps on her third winning goal. Solo becomes only the second American womens soccer player to travel to four Olympics (the first as an alternate).I know what to expect on a daily basis, Solo said of the roster. But I dont know what to expect when you have the intensity of a major tournament, when you have two days between every game -- how some of the players are going to recover, especially some of the players coming back from injury, especially some of the younger players. Its a mentally and physically very taxing tournament. It can be emotionally taxing as well.I think thats fun, to not know what to expect because somehow, [in] some way well figure it out. Whether its through subs, whether its through putting your arm around someone like Mallory Pugh and being like, Well get through this. Its not always going to be pretty, but well figure it out. That theme keeps appearing when the players with the most experience talk about this team, perhaps surprisingly, given at least the public perceptions of many of the players involved. Whether seen as intensely introspective, like Sauerbrunn, intensely outspoken, like Solo, or just intensely focused, like Lloyd and Morgan, they are now the core of the experience that Ellis said brings a voice of levity to the locker room.That seems to be the identity they want, knowing that we will make it out to be their strength if they win and their weakness if they lose.The casualness of this team is, I think, a positive thing, Morgan said. In the past its been so tense leading up to tournaments because we had very intense players like Abby [Wambach]. I think not having a big player like that, thats very loud and intense, I think its good for us. Because I think for the younger players, they might stress out over seeing just how many games we have in such a short period of time and the impact we can have at this level. I think its good to have.It is a young team, but its a team on which almost everyone has experienced what is required to win a title.It isnt the same team that entered past Olympics. It enters off World Cup success instead of disappointment. But the goal is the same.Every time we play in a major tournament, we want to win, Lloyd said. So I think there was that motivation, and its almost like the year after the World Cup you are able to make things better. But I think its just [about] winning. Im a winner. Every time I go out there I want to win. No matter if its a World Cup or Olympics, whether were going for a fourth consecutive or whether we havent won, thats just kind of the nature of this team. 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