Indoor USWNT Book Europe Winter Tour: Tilburg First, Then the Rohrmax Cup
The indoor season never really stops for the American women. It just moves indoors, and then it moves to Europe.
USA Field Hockey has named the Indoor USWNT‘s touring party for a two-stop winter trip that opens the team’s 2027 calendar. First stop: the International Indoor Tournament in Tilburg, Netherlands, on 2-3 January. Then east to Vienna for the 45th Rohrmax Cup on 7-10 January. Two very different tests, back to back, against some of the best indoor sides on the planet.
Tilburg is the sharper of the two. The Americans, ranked seventh in the world indoors, will face No. 5 Belgium, No. 8 Namibia and No. 18 Canada, plus top Dutch club side Huizer HC. That’s a proper measuring stick for a programme ranked seventh in the world indoors, one that finished seventh at the 2025 FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup, its best result ever.
Vienna is the bigger party. The Rohrmax Cup is one of the staples of the European indoor calendar, and the eight-team field mixes club hosts SV Arminen with senior national sides Namibia and Canada and under-21 squads from Austria, Czechia, Ireland and Switzerland. Different styles, different ages, different problems to solve. That’s the point.
“This winter tour provides a vital platform for our program to compete at the highest international tempo,” head coach Joep van der Coelen said when the roster was announced. “Facing diverse styles of play, from seasoned senior national teams to dynamic European junior squads and club powers, challenges our group tactical discipline, depth, and adaptability in tournament settings.”
College stars in the party
Two names in the touring group will be familiar to college hockey watchers. Penn State forward Ella Gaitan is in after a standout junior season, starting 17 of the 18 games she played in her first year with the Nittany Lions following a transfer from Maryland. Wake Forest freshman midfielder Cecilia Cowart is in too, named to the tour roster on 12 November.
Both are the kind of pick that tells you where this programme is heading. The indoor side has always leaned on college talent, and the pipeline keeps producing. Gaitan and Cowart get a winter of top-level indoor hockey before their outdoor college seasons even think about starting again.
For our money, the Tilburg leg matters more than Vienna. Belgium and Namibia are the kind of sides the US need to beat regularly if seventh is going to become a launchpad rather than a ceiling. A win or two there, and the Rohrmax Cup becomes a victory lap. Lose all three, and January gets very honest, very fast.
The full roster was announced by USA Field Hockey on 10 November. The tour is the first item on the Indoor USWNT’s 2027 calendar, and with the indoor game growing fast in the States, it won’t be the last time this winter the Americans test themselves against Europe’s best.
