HONOLULU — UC San Diego gave the Hawaii women’s water polo team a timely reminder that little is guaranteed in the frenetic postseason.

The top-seeded Rainbow Wahine advanced to Saturday’s Big West tournament championship match, but not without being pushed by the fifth-seeded Tritons. UCSD, a team that UH beat by nine goals on senior night April 1, hung around and made things interesting late in the Wahine’s 14-12 semifinal victory at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex.

What You Need To Know

  • The top-seeded Hawaii women's water polo team defeated fifth-seeded UC San Diego 14-12 in the Big West tournament semifinals on Friday and will face UC Irvine in Saturday's championship match

  • UH shook off a 12-day layoff from game action and jumped out to a 9-5 halftime lead, but lost key freshman center Morgan McDowall to an unusual ejection by rule for entering the pool too early on a substitution

  • UCSD crept within two goals in the fourth quarter before UH drained clock and was able to seal the outcome in the final minute with a goal by Lucia Gomez de la Puente

  • UH defeated UCI 9-8 in the 2021 Big West championship and topped the Anteaters 11-8 in the 2022 regular season

Second-seeded UC Irvine beat Long Beach State 11-7 in the day’s second semifinal, setting up a rematch of last year’s Big West championship won 9-8 by UH in San Diego. Opening sprint is scheduled for 5:45 p.m.

UH has four Big West championships to UCI’s seven. The Wahine won the regular-season matchup 11-8 at Irvine, but as Friday showed, that means little come tourney time.

UH (16-5), the tournament host for the first time since 2015, had a 12-day layoff from game action – including a first-round bye – but got off to a fast start against UCSD as freshman Morgan McDowall scored four goals in a little over a quarter. However, the center was ejected from the match before halftime for entering the pool too quickly on a substitution, which both UH coach Maureen Cole and UCSD coach Brad Kreutzkamp said factored into the tight finish.

About 150 people, many of various Big West allegiances, took in the match.

“I think we came out ready and excited to play and as the game went on, we made some unorthodox mistakes,” said Cole, who was issued a yellow card in the third quarter. “But it’s hard to play with a lead. I think we learned a lot from today that we can build for tomorrow.”

UCSD (20-11) fell behind by four goals at halftime and six late in the third quarter, as UH’s other center, senior Elyse Lemay-Lavoie produced a highlight when she fired a shot off the crossbar, then palmed the offensive rebound and tossed the putback into the goal in one fluid motion.  

But the Tritons’s Taylor Onstott scored just before the third period ended, and then kicked off a 3-0 UCSD run in the final frame.

UH, which had been holding the ball in its own half of the pool to drain clock over the last few minutes, got a key score from Lucia Gomez de la Puente from mid-pool with 44 seconds left to effectively ice it after the Tritons had pulled their goalkeeper.

“I thought Mo played it perfectly with three minutes left, sitting on the ball, not really taking any chances for us to turn a turnover into a goal the other direction,” said Kreutzkamp, who was proud of his team for scrapping back into the match.

UH sophomore attacker Alba Bonamusa Boix tied for game-high honors with McDowall with four goals. Gomez de la Puente added a hat trick.

Bonamusa Boix, of Spain, has “Go Bows” tattooed on her right foot.

“I think in front of us is such an amazing opportunity to play (the) Big West (championship) at home and being able to play Irvine, which is an amazing team,” she said. “To be able to put a show in front of our crowd and our people is a great opportunity.”

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.