American Summer Taube keen to kick on in NPLW NNSW with Charlestown Azzurri

That was enough to know the American midfielder would bring skill and stability to an Azzurri side seeking a top-four finish in their second season of Northern NSW Football's women's premier league.

The 24-year-old has not disappointed.

A consistent Taube has proven sharp and steely in the middle of the park for Charlestown, who improved to 16 points and third place with an important 3-1 win over Adamstown (10) at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility on Saturday night.

Taube opened the scoring in the third minute as Azzurri stated their intentions early with a strong start.

"[Winger] Jess Gentle played with her at Wyoming and knew Summer wanted to come for a work holiday," Papaspiropoulos said.

"She sent us a highlights reel and I saw about two seconds of it and thought it was an easy choice for us.

"She can do everything. Having a midfielder who can be so good on the ball, be such a good defensive workhorse and be good in the air is not an easy thing to find."

Taube grew up in Las Vegas then spent five years on a soccer scholarship at the University of Wyoming, where Gentle also played.

But she was not ready to give up soccer once her studies were completed and jumped at the chance to play in Australia.

"At home there wasn't another competition, it was just too low after coming from college," Taube said.

"I already had Australia in mind because our university used to recruit from Australia so I had so many Australian friends. Jess got me in touch with the coach and he liked what he saw so it worked out."

Taube is living in Merewether and enjoying the Newcastle lifestyle as much as the standard of the NPLW NNSW competition.

So much so, she is hoping to extend her stay.

"It's a pretty tough competition but it's so different to college because college was really intense," Taube said.

"We trained five days a week. It was like a job in college because I had a scholarship and it was such a huge part of my life, whereas now it's a nice balance where I get to train and we have good competition on the weekend but people have day jobs and that's all recognised.

"I got a visa that lasts a year and I'm just trying to work out if I can extend that because I want to play another year."

But first she hopes to help Azzurri have success.

They face another crucial clash on Saturday afternoon when they host fourth-placed Maitland (15), who have played two less games than Charlestown.

"You always have the highest hopes of maybe we can win the competition and I think that's still realistic as long as people stay healthy," Taube said.

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