HONOLULU — Even after a close defeat to a perennial national title contender and a rout of a conference foe this weekend, there was still plenty of room for improvement for the Hawaii water polo team.
Visiting USC, the No. 3 team in the country and one of three schools to historically dominate the collegiate women’s sport, capitalized on a fast start Friday night to beat No. 5 UH 12-9 at Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex in a game that featured the return of fans from a two-year pandemic hiatus.
The hundred-plus supporters lent a festive atmosphere to the pool, but the result was the same as two mainland meetings with the Trojans this season: UH was close but not quite good enough. It was the 26th straight setback for UH in the head-to-head series with USC going back to 2006.
The narrow nature of the defeat was frustrating for Wahine coach Maureen Cole, who is high on the prospects of this year’s group – one that features several COVID-year returning veterans and a crop of promising youngsters. She feels they match up physically with the Trojans at every position, but that mental lapses have been the separating factor.
Saturday evening’s 15-5 runaway over Cal State Northridge on a quick turnaround to improve to 2-0 in Big West play (11-5 overall) did little to assuage that sensation as she felt her team’s focus lapse.
“Lackluster,” Cole said after the CSUN game. “We’re still just too sloppy. I mean, a conference win is great, but I think the things that we wanted to accomplish in that game we didn’t and we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and clean up some things this next week of practice.”
Passing accuracy and making the right reads on opponents were shortcomings, she surmised, especially against a team like CSUN that doesn’t punish mistakes nearly as quickly as USC. On the other hand, the Wahine showed an improved counterattack against the Matadors.
Cole brightened as she spoke about the crowd, the absence of which can have a tangible effect on morale, she said.
“After being on the road four out of eight weeks, and getting the opportunity at home in front of the crowd, we cherish it,” Cole said. “A little disappointed in the way we showed how we play, but now we can focus on one game all next week, and I think we’ll be ready to play.”
The team circled around Cole for a discussion after the 10-goal win to properly set the tone for their next game, at home Friday against No. 18 UC Santa Barbara.
“Urgency” and “complacency” were the dueling themes of the talk, said senior center Elyse Lemay-Lavoie.
“We focused all week against USC and were expecting a lot from that game,” said Lemay-Lavoie, who tallied five goals on the weekend for a team-high 33 on the season. “Today, we didn’t show up like we did yesterday, so today we knew it was going to be an easier game, definitely, but we still have a lot to work on as a team. We need to stay constant and not allow easy goals from the other teams like tonight.”
Alba Monamusa Boix and Lara Luka both contributed four goals for the weekend. Goalkeepers Molly DiLalla and Bridget Layburn have split time in the net all season and that held true in the two matches as Cole looks for someone to separate. That time has not yet come, she said.
Lemay-Lavoie, an All-Big West first-teamer in 2019 when the Wahine won the conference crown, left after that season to train with the Canadian national team and play in the Tokyo 2020 games. The Montreal native hadn’t planned to be back with Hawaii, but after the pandemic extended her absence for another year, she decided to return for her degree and one last ride as a Wahine.
She feels is a different player than her previous go-around.
“I think I’ve gained a lot. It’s been two years. I went to the Olympics, I went with my national team. I did training,” Lemay-Lavoie said. “So, I’m a senior on this team now, more veteran. I’m really trying to help freshmen into their future years at Hawaii.”
UH has four Big West regular-season matches remaining to determine seeding for the Big West tournament, the first to be hosted by Hawaii since 2015. (The 2020 tournament was to be at UH before the season was cut short due to the pandemic.)
From there, if successful, UH could be in the running for an NCAA Tournament appearance. USC coach Marko Pintaric said he would not be surprised to see UH there, and that the Trojans would do what they could to avoid playing the Wahine by earning a high seed out of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
USC (13-2), the defending NCAA champion with seven total championships, this year renewed its tradition of spending spring break in Hawaii to train and play a road match at UH after seeing that trip get COVID canceled in 2020.
"Hawaii is a very, very strong team on every position. Every match that we played, it’s really close until the last second," Pintaric said.
"But we’re not going to shy away if we have to play against them," he added.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.