HONOLULU — It was one thing for the Hawaii water polo team to achieve a program first with its season-opening win over powerhouse Stanford.
How would the Rainbow Wahine back it up with quality competition in their home pool?
Pretty well, it turns out.
Fourth-ranked UH overcame a slow start to defeat No. 5 Fresno State 9-5 at Duke Kanahamoku Aquatic Complex on Saturday night, capping a two-day Rainbow Invitational that also saw them top No. 9 Princeton 10-6 and Azusa Pacific 18-3.
UH is 5-0 heading to the Triton Invitational in La Jolla, Calif., next week.
“Proud of them,” coach Maureen Cole said. “I think we’re still so young and have a lot of room for growth. That’s a great Fresno team and great Princeton team, so to come out with (those) wins is awesome.”
Fresno (6-1), a rapidly emerging program under Cole’s former UCLA and USA water polo teammate Natalie Benson, came out with a stiff zone defense that elicited repeated UH shots straight at goalkeeper Paula Nieto Jasny. The Bulldogs jumped out 2-0 and led 4-3 at halftime on Kaitlin Howarth’s halftime buzzer-beater.
But UH came out for the second half with consecutive goals from Morgan Rios.
“Once we got the reads that we had to do, we were more structured,” said attacker Alba Bonamusa Boix, who had two goals along with Rios, Bernadette Doyle and Bia Mantellato Dias.
The senior from Spain gave a shout-out to Rios for jump-starting the team. UH outscored FSU 6-1 in the second half and had the outcome in hand midway through the fourth quarter.
“Once you start a quarter like that and get two goals very fast … the momentum goes our way,” Bonamusa Boix said. “It gives us more motivation to keep going.”
UH opens UC San Diego’s home event with San Diego State at 10 a.m. Hawaii time Friday.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.