SAN ANTONIO — UTSA freshmen Valentina Lefort and Maria Jose Rojas will represent their native Chile at this week's Algarve Cup. The prestigious international tournament is scheduled to be played from March 2-9 in Portugal.
Lefort and Rojas, both from Santiago, both played important roles in UTSA’s success last fall. The pair helped lead the Roadrunners to their first-ever Southland Conference Tournament Championship and the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Lefort saw time in 21 matches (11 starts) at defender last season and helped UTSA set a school record with 10 shutouts.
Meanwhile, Rojas was named second-team all-conference and she scored the game-winning goal in the team's overtime victory against Southeastern Louisiana in the league’s championship match. She played in all 23 contests (19 starts), finished the year with team bests in assists (6) and points (16) and ranked second on the squad with five goals.
Both players were named to the Southland Commissioner’s Honor Roll following the fall semester.
The Algarve Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams that has been played annually since 1994. Twelve teams are divided into three groups of four and the event opens with round-robin play within each pool. From there, the top eight teams advance to championship play. The United States is the defending champion and it has won the tournament seven times since 2000.
