The Hawaii soccer team withstood a barrage of shots and a number of close calls to escape Cal State Fullerton with a rare point after Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Titan Stadium.

UH (2-2-3, 1-0-1 Big West) appeared to be in position for its first win over CSUF as a Big West member, but the Rainbow Wahine could not make Zoe Park’s first career goal stand up. The Titans got a set piece score in the 86th minute when Jenae Perez headed in a free kick over keeper Sophie Augustin.

UH coach Michele Nagamine said in a post-game phone interview that her players were “irraz” about not being able to pull out the win, when in the past the program would’ve been happy with the draw against an annual conference contender in Fullerton (2-4-5, 0-1-1).

“It stings a bit because we had a very, very gritty performance tonight,” Nagamine said. “There was a lot of momentum that Fullerton had … they had a pretty good crowd and we got a little frantic.”

CSUF had the run of play throughout but could not land a solid blow despite tallying a whopping 30 shots and 14 corner kicks. The UH defense backed up Augustin several times with saves at the goal line.

“Sophie Augustin, she came up huge tonight. Massive, massive game for her,” Nagamine said. “And proud of our defense. … Everybody (in the conference) tied tonight, so I’m glad that we could also get a point … on the road tonight, huge.”

It was just the second time in 12 meetings as BWC opponents that UH emerged with a result against CSUF. The Wahine are 0-10-2 against the Titans in those matches, having last beaten them in a nonconference match in 2008.

Park, a sophomore defender from Aurora, Colo., scored on a loose ball in the box from a corner kick with eight seconds left in the first half, an wild turn of events after the Titans had controlled the action to that point.

UH finishes its road trip at UC Riverside (1-5-4, 1-0) at 4 p.m. Hawaii time on Sunday. The Highlanders beat Fullerton 3-1 last weekend.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.