CL's LePeilbet, USA Women's Soccer Begin Quarterfinal Games Saturday

From Crystal Lake to London:

The U.S.A. Women's Soccer team will face New Zealand Saturday as the women's soccer quarterfinal games get under way.

All four games will be aired on NBC- Sports Network. The U.S.A. game will be shown at 8:30 a.m. Crystal Lake time, according to NBC.com.

Representing the U.S.A. is Crystal Lake native Amy LePeilbet, a 2000 graduate of Prairie Ridge High School. Now living in Boston, Mass., LePeilbet's game is defense. She was a second-team All American at Arizona State. , according to a Crystal Lake Patch article.

But playing soccer hasn't come without a cost—a torn ACL shut her down in 2006 and another knee injury slowed her this past year.

"She has played for the USA at different times with a broken arm and a torn ACL,'' last year during the World Cup Championships. "She was left off the World Cup team the last time out and the Olympic team but she never ever gave up."

Leone described LePeilbet "as tough minded an athlete as you will ever meet, and USA Soccer and the World Cup is a lifelong dream of hers.'' Leone was Arizona State University's coach when LePeilbet played her college soccer, according to Patch.

" "She would do anything to help the team win. One time she even put on a gk jersey against UCLA to play sweeper-keeper in the final minutes of a game. I also remember in any game we were down and crunch time came, there was always another level of intensity to her in those times."