The Hawaii soccer team had roughly a minute and a half to experience the high of an impactful lead on the road in its Big West season finale.

UC Irvine capitalized on the early injury exit of Rainbow Wahine goalkeeper Lauren Marquez to score four unanswered goals for a 4-1 victory Thursday at Anteater Stadium, clinching the final Big West tournament berth for the Anteaters and the end of the 2022 season for the Wahine.

What You Need To Know

  • The Hawaii soccer team's 2022 season came to an end Thursday with a 4-1 loss to UC Irvine at Anteater Stadium in Irvine, Calif.

  • UH, vying for the sixth and final berth into the Big West tournament, scored first with a 25-yarder from Eliza Ammendolia, but senior goalkeeper Lauren Marquez was injured a minute later and was forced to leave the match

  • UCI capitalized with two goals before halftime against UH's emergency substitute goalkeeper and put in another two scores late in the game to clinch the final playoff berth

  • 2019 was the only season to date that UH has qualified for the Big West tournament

UH concluded its campaign at 6-6-3 overall and 3-4-3 in the Big West for seventh place – right where Michele Nagamine’s team was picked to finish in the preseason, just outside of the six-team playoff picture.

“They were by far the most physical team. They were picked to finish first in our conference and they were playing for their lives tonight,” Nagamine told Spectrum News in a postgame phone interview. “I think once Lauren went off, I don’t think we managed the emotions well and they just capitalized on it. (The Anteaters) could smell blood in the water.”

The way it ended, with squandered opportunities for points in the standings in the final two matches Sunday against Cal State Fullerton and Thursday, left a bad taste in the mouth of the 12th-year coach Nagamine.

Thursday, the most lopsided loss of the full season, was particularly rough.

Things started out with promise as an unmarked Eliza Ammendolia launched a beautiful goal from 25 yards out to the upper shelf for a 1-0 lead a mere 4:20 into the match. It was the scrappy Australian’s second goal of the season.

But disaster struck 90 seconds later, in the form of a severe knee gash for the senior captain Marquez, who got the worst of a spikes-up collision from an attacking Anteater. The leader of the UH defense had to be carted off the field to get stitches, and freshman Brianna Chirpich, whom UH planned to redshirt, was forced into action as the team’s last remaining keeper. Backup Sophie Augustin saw her season come to an end with an injury at Cal Poly on Sept. 25.

“There’s no other way to say it than that completely sucked. Their forward came in cleats-up, it was a dirty play. Lauren split her knee open in the first six minutes of the game, and we just weren’t the same after that. And that’s on us.”

Irvine scored back-to-back goals in the 39th and 40th minutes by Erin Covey and Alyssa Moore for a 2-1 halftime lead. Had UH managed to score again for a draw, it would have been enough to qualify for the tournament with 13 points, ahead of Irvine's 12 in that scenario. But momentum had shifted dramatically – Ammendolia was knocked out of the game in the second half with what was a concussion, Nagamine said – and UCI (7-5-6, 3-2-5) finished with a 26-7 shots advantage.

UCI tacked on scores by Sophie Gillies and Lilli Rask in the 79th and 84th minutes to clinch it.

“I thought that (Chirpich) did the best job that she could’ve possibly been asked of her,” Nagamine said. “Irvine played a great game. They came out super high pressure.”

Sophomore forward Krista Peterson finished the year as UH’s most productive player with five goals and four assists. Redshirt freshman Amber Gilbert added four goals and two assists and outgoing senior Kelci Sumida had two goals and four assists.

UH showed improvement from last season, when it managed only two wins coming off a year lost to the pandemic, but 2019 remains the only time that UH has participated in the Big West tournament in a decade of membership.

“I’m really proud of the product we put out on the field this year,” Nagamine said. “We played a very possession-oriented style of play. We started to put up some of the biggest numbers, shot-wise, toward the end of the season. The team loved each other from start to finish, had great chemistry. They were a sheer joy to coach. For me, there’s a lot that we can build on with this group. Our (nine) seniors did a good job leaving a really good foundation for us.”

Cal Poly completed an unbeaten run in its last seven matches to earn the No. 1 playoff seed with its 21 points. It and UC Davis, which UH beat in its Big West opener, secured opening-round byes in the tournament. Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara earned the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 seeds.

 

Hawaii sophomore defender Jacey Jicha competed against Cal State Fullerton in UH's home finale last weekend. (Spectrum News/Brian McInnis)

 

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