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Jan. 11, 2012

NORMAN, Okla. — Oklahoma’s Keilani Ricketts was named to the USA Softball Women’s National Team for a second straight year as the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) announced 12 of its 2012 selections on Wednesday. Along with Ricketts’ selection, the ASA announced an initial pool of 11 players, including OU’s Lauren Chamberlain and Jessica Shults, who have accepted invitations to a June selection camp to tryout for five final spots on the 2012 USA squad.

Following a 2012 USA Softball Women’s National Team and USA Softball Women’s Elite National Team Selection Camp in June, the Women’s National Team will compete at the World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City, the Canadian Open Fast Pitch International Championship in Surrey, B.C., Canada, and the International Softball Federation (ISF) World Championship in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. The Women’s Elite National Team will compete at the World University Games in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Throughout the spring, additional athletes will be invited to the June Selection Camp, where the five remaining members of the 2012 USA Softball Women’s National Team and the 17-athlete roster for the 2012 USA Softball Women’s Elite National Team will be decided. Following the Selection Camp, members of both teams will play each other in exhibition games before beginning competition.

Ricketts and Shults were part of the 2011 USA team that claimed gold in the World Cup of Softball on July 25 in Oklahoma City while Ricketts went on to lead the U.S. with four wins at the Pan American Games in October as the American squad claimed its second gold medal of the year.

Chamberlain will also have the opportunity to be named to a USA national team for the second time in as many years as she and fellow Sooner Destinee Martinez were part of the USA Softball Women’s Junior National Team that won the 2011 ISF Junior Women’s World Championship. The two faced off against teammate Georgia Casey, a member of the Australian national team, at the event in South Africa in December.