Summer Green keeps fighting for UNC women's soccer

Summer Green had to battle for every minute.

Entering the season, the senior forward had no guarantee of a starting spot, despite 58 starts in her first three years with the North Carolina women’s soccer team.

With so much talent and depth across the board, Green was locked into a fight for a starting spot with Sarah Ashley Firstenberg.

Firstenberg won the battle going into the season opener against Weber State on Friday, but it took less than 45 minutes for Green to gain it back.

“Summer was absolutely outstanding, defensively and offensively,” Coach Anson Dorrance said. “She won the spot back.”

Green’s play in the first half earned her the start to begin the second, where she helped her team secure a 3-0 victory over the Wildcats. Her performance earned her the start on Sunday as well.

In the past, the senior has been no stranger to creating chances.

Facing high standards, the 2014 season proved difficult for Green.

She finished in the top three on the squad in points each of her first two years as a Tar Heel, but didn’t manage to match that feat her junior year, partly due to injury.

Throughout her junior season, Green fought compartment syndrome in both legs, which can lead to muscle and nerve damage.

“Anyone that has it will tell you that your calves are just in agony,” Dorrance said.

“But she’s got a stiff upper lip, so she played through all the pain she had last fall.”

While her physical pain played a major role in Green’s woes in 2014, the Milford, Mich., native doesn’t attribute all of her issues to injury.

“My injury affected me here and there, but it was mostly mental,” Green said.

Now a senior, Green is taking on the challenge of holding her starting job and keeping her head between her shoulders.

Her main goal this year: focusing on the task at hand.

The forward snatched at the opportunity to do exactly that in her first start of the season against Fresno State on Sunday.

In just seven minutes and 14 seconds, Green tied her season scoring total from 2014 with the game’s first two goals.

As she blasted her second goal from over 20 yards away, it was clear the forward had come to play.

Green is part of a skilled set of attackers, all of whom are focused on scoring and scoring often.

“We’re dangerous,” said sophomore Annie Kingman. “We have three lines of players that we can play who are all dangerous and who can all score goals.”

With this much talent, Green’s starting spot is far from secured.

“That will continue to be a war,” Dorrance said.

But Green has shown it’s a war she’s ready to fight.

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