Notre Dame’s Taya Reimer Named to 2015 USA Pan American Games Team
Junior forward looks for third gold medal
Notre Dame junior forward Taya Reimer has already had a pretty successful career in college, and now she’ll have the opportunity to earn her third gold medal as she was named to the 2015 Pan American Games team, her fourth USA Basketball team in five years.
Her previous teams include the 2011 USA U16 National Team (gold medal at FIBA Americas U18 Championship), the 2011 USA 3×3 Youth Team (honorary bronze at FIBA 3×3 Youth World Cup following injuries that forced Americans to forfeit third-place game) and as captain of the 2012 USA Under-17 National Team (gold medal at FIBA U17 World Championship).
“As one of the USA Basketball veterans on this year’s Pan Am Games Team, Taya will be able to help offer leadership and valuable insights for some of her other teammates as they go after the gold this summer,” Muffet McGraw added. “It’s experiences like these that will only help grow her game even further by the time she returns to campus to prepare for next season.”
These experiences added to her consecutive appearances in the National Championship game for Notre Dame can only make Reimer a more complete player entering the 2015 season. Incoming freshman Ali Patberg (MaxPreps High School Player of the Year) will be an alternate, and will remain “on-call” in the event a player is injured or unable to participate due to illness.
The US team will participate in Group A in round-robin play at the eight-team Pan Am Games tournament on July 16 against Brazil. Other preliminary-round games will follow against the Dominican Republic on July 17 and Puerto Rico on the 18th. The top two teams in each of the two preliminary groups will advance to the medal round semifinals on July 19 with the gold and bronze medal games slated for July 20.
Group B will contain the host team Canada, whose roster will likely include former Irish standout Natalie Achonwa. “Ace” opened up training camp with the Indiana Fever, her first action as she has been recovering from her knee injury suffered in the Final Four game in 2013. She spent time on Muffet McGraw’s staff this season and is expected to play at both at the Pan Am Games and the FIBA Americas Championship, which will take place Aug. 9-16 in Edmonton, Alberta.