SHENZHEN, China --- The Anteaters' global reach continues to grow as junior Clarissa Robles appeared with the Mexican national team in the BaoAn Cup Women's International Football Tournament in Shenzhen, China in early January.
The Four Nations Cup as its more affectionately known pitted the Mexican squad against three of the top countries in the world in Canada, Korea Republic, and the host China.
Robles appeared as a sub in all three matches, her first three national team caps, as El Tri battled to a 0-0 draw in the opening match to China, a hard-fought 2-1 loss to the eventual-champion, Canada, and a 2-1 loss to Korea Republic to cap off the tourney and finish third.
Robles, who featured as a defender, was coming off a trip to the under-20 World Cup with Team Mexico along with teammate Claudia Lopez where they reached the round of 16 with they earned two points with draws to England and the tournament's runner-up, Nigeria, but were unable to escape the group.
Head Coach Scott Juniper is swelling with pride over Robles' success, "Clarissa is a player who has worked extremely hard and her hard work has been paying off. She had an excellent showing at the U20 World Cup in the summer and the opportunity to play with the full team has come as a result of that. It is a great time to be involved at that level with it being a World Cup year. It's also great for our program. It shows that all the work we are doing to integrate our training with our strength and conditioning program, our sports medicine support, and academic guidance has fostered an environment to support players aiming for the highest levels of the game. We are all very proud of her success."
Robles has continued to train with the squad with a spot on the 2015 World Cup roster still in sight. She and Lopez have continued to remain in the mix with the Women's World Cup coming in early June hosted by Canada.
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