March 8, 2006

NEWARK, NJ - New Jersey Institute of Technology sophomore Erika Taugher has been called to join Portugal's national women's soccer team for the upcoming Algarve Women's Soccer Cup to be contested by the national teams of 11 countries, including the United States, between March 9 and March 15.

The Algarve, the southernmost region of Portugal, will host the entire 11-team tournament, which was first played in 1994 and is rated as the fourth-most important international women's soccer competition behind only the World Cup, the European Championship and the Olympic Games.

The 13th annual competition, which includes the United States national team, defending world and European champion Germany, as well as China and the strong national teams from Scandinavia, gets underway on March 9.

Portugal is part of the three-team Group C and will play the Republic of Ireland on March 9 and Mexico on March 13. The Group C winner will then take on the top-ranked fourth-place finisher from the other two groups on March 15.

Taugher, who will turn 20 in April, is a dual citizen of Portugal and her native Canada. Erika's mother, Nelia, was born and raised in San Miguel of the Madeira Islands in Portugal before emigrating to Canada. Erika still has extensive family ties to Portugal and credits her maternal grandfather for nurturing her love of soccer.

Having grown up in Oakville, Ontario, near Toronto, Taugher played on select Provincial teams there and was playing for her Canadian team in the Orange Bowl Classic in Florida, where she discovered by NJIT coach Alyssa Radu.

Taugher's decision to come to NJIT was fortuitous in many ways, as she immediately established herself as a college star in her freshman season in which she tallied a team-leading 6 goals, 5 assists and 17 points.

In addition, Newark's Ironbound section, just a couple of miles from the NJIT campus, is a center of a large Portuguese expatriate community.

In July 2005, Ironbound SC hosted a tryout camp aimed at identifying North American-based women who could build the quality of Portugal's national team, which is ranked 40th among 123 national teams by FIFA, the worldwide governing body of soccer.

Since coming to NJIT and Newark, Taugher has embraced her cultural roots through the Ironbound. "I have a job in the Ironbound and all the kids on my job are Portuguese and Brazilian," she said. "I also attended a Portuguese festival last summer. It's been great."

Taugher further enhanced her soccer credentials as a college sophomore, helping NJIT to its best season in 10 years of women's soccer. The 2005 Highlanders qualified for their first-ever postseason action (ECAC Division II Championship tournament) and set new program records for overall wins (8) and conference wins (7).

Erika again led the team in goals (6), assists (3) and points (15) and is virtually certain to become the program's all-time leading scorer next season. Her career totals to date are 12 goals (the existing record is 13), 8 assists (the record is 10) and 32 points (the record is 35).

An All-Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference honoree, Taugher had four game-winning goals in 2005 and was CACC Player of the Week on October 3.

Taugher is the first player from the July 2005 tryouts to be called to the Portuguese national team. The tryouts included players from top college programs throughout the region.

A mechanical engineering major in the Albert Dorman Honors College of NJIT, where she maintains a cumulative grade point average above 3.7, Taugher is a huge fan of NJIT and its women's soccer program, which is reclassifying to NCAA Division I from Division II.

About NJIT, she said: "I love going to school here."

Narrowing the topic to women's soccer and the move to Division I, she said: "It's special going to a school that's progressing and building something. My coaches have been great all along. They are honest and straightforward and they have supported me in everything I do, including this chance to play for Portugal."

"Athletics in a school helps to build community. It brings kids together," said Taugher, who is a resident assistant for NJIT's department of Residence Life. "We've already seen it when they come out to the games with their faces painted and making a lot of noise supporting us."