Meet Lavina Hola, hailed from a mix parentage of Oro and Gulf and plays the starting goal keeper position for the PNG U-20 Women’s national team.
Lavina started playing football with her mother at an early age.
She followed her mother to the soccer pitch and got in the normal kick about, until her aunt insisted that she took up football seriously, and from there on Lavina’s football career begin.
She made her first international debut when she was selected to represent PNG in the U-15 Women’s national team in 2010.
In 2012, she was again selected to represent PNG in the U-17 squad to Auckland, New Zealand; and in 2014, this time in the U-20 Women’s national side.
When PNG won the bid to host the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, young Lavina was again called to represent her birth nation.
She admits that representing her country is an honor and is proud of being a Papua New Guinean with every beat of her heart, and she shows it too, in every game despite win or lose.
Lavina had to make a transition from defender to Goal Keeper when her coach, Lisa Cole, suggested that she’s better off making saves inside the box then playing as a defender.
And she enjoys every moment of being a goalkeeper.
Lavina acknowledges Cole as one of the best coach she has trained unde,r and idolizes her mother as the biggest influence in her football career and wants to be like her someday.
The feisty young lass shares a piece of advice to young girls who aspire to be good footballers, “to have the drive to push beyond their limits.”
“It’s all up in the mind and if you want to be successful, you have to come out of your comfort zone and try something new, set your goals and work hard for it, it may not be easy at first but through perseverance and determination you’ll get there,” she adds.
Now a 20–year old goal keeper, Lavina has realised her dream pulling-off a number of saves against the best teams in the world. Lavinia was tested by the tournaments famous Swedish striker, Stina Blackstinous, who scored four goals against her, but she pulled off some great saves denying the Swedish from scoring more goals.
Although conceiving 15 goals in the tournament to date she has a lot more saves at this level, and in the process earning her Coach Lisa Cole’s admiration.
