WAIPAHU, Hawaii — Mystifying forces continue to work against the Hawaii soccer team on senior night.
The Rainbow Wahine had a chance to lock up a Big West tournament berth in its home finale on Sunday, but could not get it done in a 2-0 loss to nemesis Cal State Fullerton. Now they have one last shot, and they have to do it on the road.
UH (6-5-3, 3-3-3 Big West) effectively has a play-in game to the six-team tournament at UC Irvine (6-5-6, 2-2-5) at 4 p.m. Hawaii time on Thursday. If the Wahine beat the Anteaters, they’ll qualify for the second time in three editions of the Big West’s postseason.
Coming off a dramatic 2-1 win over UC Riverside on Thursday, there was hope that UH could seal the deal in front of one full side of packed stands at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.
Instead, it was the Titans (8-5-5, 5-2-2) that punched their ticket.
The majesty of a Wahine senior night post-game ceremony — this year, a whopping nine players were honored — has been mixed with disappointment at Waipio every year going back to 2014. UH is 0-6-1 in senior games since that year.
“It’s like a craps table. It’s gotta change sometime, the luck’s gotta start falling our way,” UH coach Michele Nagamine said with a rueful laugh. “A few people were joking with me that we’ve got to bless the goals. And now I’m seriously thinking about it.”
It was actually UH’s first senior night game since 2019 because the 2020 Big West season was canceled and last year UC San Diego was a late scratch due to COVID cases on its team.
The players honored after the game were: Taylor Caporus, Julia Wolfe, V Jimenez, Lauren Marquez, Bailey Faulkner, Kylie McNamara, Emily Cotrell, Kelci Sumida and Eliza Ammendolia.
Nagamine credited her largest senior class for setting the tone for the underclassmen in a year full of ups and downs.
Sumida, a Moanalua High alumna who has 13 career goals, grew up playing and watching games out at Waipio. It was emotional for her as she signed autographs for keiki among her friends and family.
She did her best to put that aside.
“We like to make it exciting, so it’s coming down to the last match and hopefully we’ll be able to get a good result," Sumida said. "We have to come out with a win and hopefully make the tournament.”
Despite lobbing 19 shots at the Titans’ goal, UH couldn’t find the range. The team’s finishing ability was impacted by the absence of forward Krista Peterson, who was serving a mandatory one-game suspension for being sent off with a red card on Thursday. UH moved Bailey Faulkner up, but Nagamine acknowledged the midfielder wasn’t comfortable there.
Nagamine said the Titans did a good job of erasing space on UH attacking runs but ultimately said it was on her team for failing to capitalize.
Fullerton, as it has done throughout UH’s decade of membership in the conference, found a way to flummox Hawaii. It was the Titans’ third win on a UH senior night since 2016.
CSUF is 10-0-1 against UH since the Rainbow Wahine joined the conference in 2012.
“It’s always a tricky thing to travel to the island and play. And so, how we started the game was really important,” Titans coach Demian Brown said. “I’m really impressed and proud of the women with how hard and focused they came out at the beginning of the match.”
Kaylin Raibon scored a header goal off a corner kick in the 25th minute and Kaytlin Brinkman slotted the dagger through in the 74th.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.