Dunedin youngster Elise Mamanu-Gray has a big year ahead of her after overcoming a disappointment which nearly saw her quit the sport.
Mamanu-Gray (18), who has just left Queens High School, made her national debut for the New Zealand under-20 women's side in Auckland on Thursday, where she helped it to a 8-0 win over American Samoa.
Mamanu-Gray, playing right midfield, completed an impressive match, and will back up today when the side takes on the Cook Islands at North Harbour Stadium.
New Zealand is the hot favourite to win the Oceania tournament and qualify for the under-20 women's World Cup to be played in Germany later this year.
For Mamanu-Gray, making the under-20 side makes up for her axing at the final stage of selection for the under-17 national team in 2008, when the World Cup was played in New Zealand.
Her mother, Maria Mamanu, said she was extremely down after she was left out of the final squad three months before the start of the under-17 tournament, but after a lot of soul-searching she had decided to aim for the under-20 side.
Through a lot of hard work, including training up to six hours a day at times, she won selection for the team.
Mamanu said her daughter, who played senior women's football for Roslyn-Wakari, had spent the majority of the past few months in Auckland with the team, but did come home for Christmas and the New Year.
Mamanu, who hails from the Cook Islands, said her daughter would not be going easy on the opposition today.
New Zealand finishes the tournament by playing Tonga on Monday, and Mamanu-Gray returns to Dunedin the following day.
In all likelihood, if New Zealand qualifies, the 18-year-old will have to live in Auckland for the next few months as the team trains in the city for the World Cup, to be played in Germany in July.
But Mamanu-Gray has a big decision to make if the side does qualify for Germany.
She has been awarded a full sporting scholarship at a university in Indiana, in the United States, and is due to take it up in August.
