Western NSW graduate Ellie Carpenter and her fellow Matildas will play their first women’s soccer match at 4am Thursday (Australian time).

When the Matildas kick off against Canada in Sao Paolo, it will continue has been a rapid rise through the ranks for the talented teenager.

After a period when she called Bathurst’s Proctor Park her home ground as a member of the Western NSW squad, Carpenter was signed up by W-League outfit Western Sydney.

Carpenter first wore national colours when she played in the Australian under 17s side in September 2014.

In March this year she made her debut for the Matildas when taking on Vietnam in an Olympic Games qualifier.

Aged 15 at the time, the Cowra native was the ninth youngest player to earn a Matildas cap.

Australia went on to qualify for Rio and Carpenter showed enough commitment and improvement to make the final squad.

“I am just so excited for the upcoming games in Brazil and I can’t wait to kick-off our campaign in Sao Paolo, our first game against Canada,” Carpenter told olympics.com.au “We just can’t wait to start it off.”

Carpenter is the youngest member not only of the Matildas, but the entire Australian Olympic team. It means she has been balancing some study between training and trips to the shopping mall.

“The school work is going alright I guess. I haven’t been at school this year pretty much, so it’s kinda hard,” the 16-year-old said.

“But my school is really supportive of me. I have been doing a little bit over here, but they don’t expect too much of me, which is really good.

“Sao Paolo is great, the hotel is amazing and all the girls are fitting in really well. The shopping mall is across the road here … so it is good to come over here, have a bit of a break and have a coffee.”

As one of 12 teams who will compete in Rio, Australia has been grouped alongside Germany, Canada and Zimbabwe.

While the Matildas have never won a Olympic medal, head coach Alen Stajcic thinks he has the squad to change that statistic. 

“It’s an exciting draw playing Canada first up and then another top 10 team in Germany before facing Zimbabwe,” Stajcic said.

“It’s a very exciting group and we know that if we play to our potential, we can be competitive. We have taken some significant steps forward in the past 12 months … [we believe] we can challenge for medals.”

While Carpenter plays in defence at a club level for Western Sydney, she has been filling a midfield role for the Matildas. If she gets game time against Canada – the world number 10 – she will be kept busy by what is expected to be a physical opposition.

Still, after spending the past three weeks training hard at a camp in Fortaleza, Carpenter and her team-mates are ready.

“It’s going to be a challenge but one that the girls are definitely going to be up for,” fellow midfielder Emily van Egmond said.