At the time, Igoe was a junior at Framingham High and Bullard, a Needham resident, was in the same year at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge.

Later, the pair were rivals, and All-American infielders, in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Igoe at Boston College and Bullard at Duke.

Last Sunday, after tryouts at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the two were re-named to the 36-player roster of the US women’s national senior team from among 82 invitees.

The Americans will defend their title at the 2013 Federation of International Lacrosse World Cup in Oshawa, Ontario. The 18-player final World Cup roster will be announced in February.

Bullard, who graduated from Duke in 2011 and was a volunteer assistant women’s coach at Boston University this past season, was the youngest member of the 2009 US squad that captured gold at the World Cup in the Czech Republic. She netted seven goals on nine shots in the tourney, including a goal in the 8-7 championship game win over Australia.

Both Bullard and Igoe, who used her final season of eligibility this past spring as a graduate student after a red-shirt season in 2008, had to sweat out the final selections.

“I’ve been with the training team for two years, but you can never think that because you’ve made the team before that you’ll automatically be chosen again,’’ said Igoe.

Her coach at BC, Bowen Holden, a former assistant at Lincoln-Sudbury High and Georgetown University, is an assistant coach with the US team.

“It was a very competitive weekend and it’s just one step to realizing my dream to play in the World Cup,’’ Igoe said.

Bullard, despite years of national team experience and a gold medal on her resume, also took nothing for granted.

In addition to hands-on practicing at BU, coached by US team assistant Liz Robertshaw, Bullard trained at Pure Performance Fitness in Needham after a busy fall that included teaching math and coaching lacrosse in Uganda through the nonprofit Fields of Growth program.

“It’s a lot easier playing with Kristin than against her,’’ said the 23-year-old Bullard, who leaves today for Texas Tech University as part of her new job with a consulting firm to college athletic teams and corporations that focuses on leadership development. “I’ve gotten to know Kristin better and it’s been fun reconnecting.’’

Igoe, 22, will teach the fall semester at Dedham High School to complete her master’s in education degree.

“Our next national team training session is the weekend after Labor Day,’’ she said, “so I’ll be heading right from there to my student teaching job.

“When I didn’t make the national team my sophomore year of college, I got feedback from the coaches and I’ve worked hard, especially with using my left hand, since I’m a natural righty. Being with the national team made me a better college player, but we never could quite beat Sarah and Duke.’’

Holden, a Lincoln resident and US national team goalie from 1999-2002, said Bullard is a “natural leader, mature beyond her years, who plays the game the way it should be played.’’

She said Igoe brings “incredible speed and athleticism’’ to the field as she adapts to the national team level.

The team will participate in several training events before the final roster is announced, including Stars & Stripes weekend in California in October and the Champion Challenge in Florida next January.

Annual golf tourney carries on a legacy

The field for the third annual One Ball Two Strikes’ Greg Montalbano Golf Classic was filled to overflowing in 29 days, so tournament organizers have added a morning round for the Sept. 21 event at Highfields Golf & Country Club in Grafton.

The tournament honors the Westborough native, a star pitcher at St. John’s of Shrewsbury and Northeastern University, who lost his 13-year battle with cancer on Aug. 21, 2009.

The hard-throwing lefthander pitched in the Red Sox farm system from 2000 to 2005 and for the Worcester Tornadoes of the Can-Am League until 2006.

As tournament director, Montalbano’s cousin, Patrick Fallon, said that the 2010 tournament raised $19,000 for the Catch-A-Dream Foundation, which grants once-in-a lifetime hunting and fishing experiences to individuals 18 or younger who have a life-threatening illness.