EDMONTON

When Annalise Schellenberg hung up the phone after learning that she had made the Canadian women’s soccer team roster for the 2015 Summer Universiade, she started crying.

“I was very excited,” the Alberta Pandas midfielder said. “It was a couple days of waiting, and I was with two teammates, so we were all excited.”

Schellenberg will represent her country at the World University Games during July in Gwangju, South Korea, where will be joined by aforementioned teammate, Pandas striker Jessie Candlish, who didn’t shed a tear like Schellenberg, but was just as excited and surprised.

“At the start of my Pandas soccer career, I’d never really been a leader or a standout on the teams I played on,” said Candlish. “I’ve been cut from major league teams, I pretty much played bench the majority of my first two years, but just to finally make it at this competitive stage was overwhelming.”

Only 22 players made the cut for Canada’s women’s soccer squad, an assemblage of talent that includes CIS champions, Universiade veterans, and former members of Soccer Canada’s U20 side. Candlish and Schellenberg, both Edmontonians who have played four seasons with the Pandas, aren’t really used to rubbing elbows with such award-winning peers. It wasn’t until the 2014 season that they received their first selections as Canada West All-Stars (Schellenberg to the first team, Candlish second).

Schellenberg, who was also honoured by being named to the CIS All-Star second team, said Universaide never was really on her radar until two years ago, when a handful of her then-Pandas teammates were selected to Canada’s women’s soccer team for the 2013 edition of the biannual games.

“When I came in I thought university was going to the highest level I would be playing at, and after my second year just seeing older players be on the team, (Universiade) was definitely something that I was interested in but didn’t think I would be a part of,” said Schellenberg. “I had a good season last year with the U of A and from that I was able to build on it.”

Pandas head coach Liz Jepsen encouraged her players to try out for the team, which began its selection process with a pool of 45 players at identification camps in Victoria and Quebec City last fall. Having previously coached at the World University Games, Jepsen saw Candlish and Schellenberg had potential to contribute during the 16-team tournament that takes place over a span of less than two weeks.

“They’re not the same player but they have the same character and the same dedication to the cause, so they’re very easy athletes to work with, and I think when you bring a special team together like that, one of the nicest things is to have players who will listen, learn, and buy in quickly,” Jepsen said. “When you only have a few weeks to prepare you want to work with coachable players, and they’re both very astute, very creative, solid players that like to be coached.”

In a neat bit of synchronicity, Universiade 2015 begins on July 3, only two days before Vancouver stages the final of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. That event that has potential to propel women’s soccer to new heights in this country, and the momentum of a strong showing from Christine Sinclair and her Canadian teammates could certainly carry forward to Canada’s Univerisity Games squad.

Such a notion initially catches Candlish off-guard.

“It’s kind of humbling,” she said after a pause. “I’m just super excited because I’m a huge fan of the Women’s World Cup as well, and to not even to compared to them but to be put in the same sentence is amazing.”

U OF A REPRESENTED

The Alberta Pandas’ paw prints all over Canada’s women’s soccer 2015 World University Summer Games team.

In addition to current Pandas players Annalie Schellenberg and Jessie Candlish, three alumni from the storied program are included on the squad that’s competing at Gwangju, South Korea, in July.

Defender Victoria Saccomani and striker Heather Lund made the 22-player roster, while goalkeeper Kelti Biggs has been named one of the team’s alternates.

Saccomani, a Canada West all-star, played with the Pandas for three seasons from 2011 to 2013. Lund graduated three years ago as the Pandas’ all-time leader with 28 goals in conference play, and has since been attending grad school at McGill University. Biggs just completed a stellar five-year career with the Pandas last fall, when she was the lone ‘keeper named to the CIS All-Star First Team.

Of the five, only Red Deer’s Lund does not hail from the Edmonton area.

“I think Edmonton as a soccer community can take a lot of pride in these girls having earned a spot to go play international,” longtime Pandas coach Liz Jepsen said. “There’s a lot of contributors to get this point. Along the way there’s a lot of committed club coaches and Alberta coaches and me in the more recent years getting to work with them, it’s been an honour. Having been (to Universiade) myself I know it’s a wonderful experience just being there and playing the game internationally.”

MacEwan defender Kayla Evans, a Sherwood Park product, has also been named an alternate.

@SunBrianSwane

brian.swane@sunmedia.ca