USA Youth Team features locals at PanAm Championships

Abbi Hill and Jewel Roemer.

Abbi Hill and Jewel Roemer.

A handful of local players with local ties are competing this week for Team USA at the UANA Youth Pan American Championships in Jamaica.

Miles Cole, of Santa Barbara Premier and San Marcos High School, is representing the boys national team. Abbi Hill and Jewel Roemer, of Santa Barbara 805, are on the girls national team. Chip Erdhardt, a Santa Barbara Premier player who lives in Ventura County, is a teammate of Cole.

Both teams swept through their pool-play matches undefeated and begin the medal round today. Matches are being streamed live HERE.

The USA boys went 4-0 in pool play by a total score of 78-34. Cole, playing the set position, scored in each game and totaled five in four games.

Roemer scored 11 goals for the Americans in their first four matches and Hill, an incoming freshman at Dos Pueblos High School and younger sister of Senior National Team goalie Sami Hill, added 10 goals. Hill and Roemer helped lead Santa Barbara 805 to Gold and Silver medals in 16U and 14U competition at the 2015 National Junior Olympics.