Mari Punzal, a junior midfielder on the University of Hawai‘i Rainbow Wahine soccer team, tore her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) the summer prior to her sophomore year in high school.
After undergoing surgery and months of rehabilitation, she was cleared to play and took the field for the Kamehameha Warriors her junior year.
Then it happened again, this time to the right ACL.
“I was pretty down for a while, but it’s okay; everything worked out,” Punzal said.
She is absolutely right.
Punzal has blossomed into one of the ’Bows’ most reliable performers, despite the setbacks she experienced in high school.
“It makes me feel like everything happens for a reason,” Punzal said. “When I was in eighth grade, that’s all I wanted to do – play soccer at UH.”
She has started every game since her freshman year and was named to the 2008 All-Western Athletic Conference first team as a sophomore last season.
This year, Punzal was solid in the midfield and tallied two goals on 32 shots, with 14 on goal.
THE EARLY YEARS
Punzal grew up in Kapa‘a, Kaua‘i, and first played soccer when she was six years old. Her two older brothers played before her, so she wanted to follow in their footsteps.
“I was always one to follow them,” Punzal said. “I wanted to do what they wanted to do.”
Punzal played in a boy’s league her first two years because her mother did not know that there was a girl’s league available on Kaua’i.






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