Aug. 23, 2017
BELFAST, Northern Ireland - While her collegiate teammates in Happy Valley were opening up the 2017 women's soccer season, sophomore Laura Freigang (Oppenheim, Germany) was in Belfast, Northern Ireland, competing for Germany at the 2017 UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship.
Germany ended the tournament in the semifinal round with a 2-1 loss to France. By advancing to the semifinal round of the 2017 UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship, Germany qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, which will be held in France, Aug. 7-26, 2018.
"Playing for my country was a great honor," Freigang said. "Even though we qualified for the U-20 Women's World Cup next year, we didn't quite get the result we wanted in the end. Overall, I think we played a good tournament and it was an awesome experience. I am very excited to be back at Penn State and cannot wait to start training and playing with the team."
Competing in Group A, Germany opened up group stage play with a 3-0 victory over Scotland on Aug. 8. Following the win against Scotland, Germany then posted a 2-0 victory against Spain on Aug. 11. Germany then concluded group play action, as it topped host Northern Ireland, 6-0, on Aug. 14.
Individually, Freigang played the full 90 minutes of the first two matches before playing the final 45 minutes against Northern Ireland. Against France, Freigang played the full 90 minutes. In the tournament, Freigang tallied one assist in each of the three group stage matches.