There is a special kind of female athlete who is so dedicated that her sport becomes her life. Because research shows that girls and women are prone to higher rates of injuries and other health complications, these female athletes require a level of dedication not only to their sports, but also to their long-term health. And by pairing the two, they prevail.

For Krista Pinciaro, soccer player at Medfield High School, dedication to the sport came naturally. But when she tore her medial meniscus and re-tore her lateral meniscus (after tearing both her meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) years before), she knew her senior-year soccer season was at stake.

It was one of the worst days of my life, says Krista. Soccer isn’t just a sport to me, it’s my everything. It made me feel like I belonged to something, and it made me succeed academically because I knew I had to in order to keep playing. My teammates and my coaches were all like members of my family. Not playing was devastating for me.

But Krista, like many female athletes, was no stranger to injury. Girls are more likely to tear an ACL than boys, and they’re also more likely to tear their lateral meniscus first, and then injure their medial meniscus later, explains Martha Murray, MD, co-director of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Female Athlete Program, who performed all three of Krista’s surgeries. So Krista was a textbook case, unfortunately.