WAIPAHU, Hawaii — Haunted by the specter of senior nights gone awry and bedeviled by Long Beach State for more than a decade, the Hawaii soccer team chose Halloween to conduct a thorough exorcism.
The Rainbow Wahine were locked into the No. 1 seed for the Big West tournament before kickoff in the regular-season finale at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium on Thursday night. They didn’t play like it, blanking LBSU 1-0 to head into next week’s championships with momentum.
UH (12-7-1, 8-1-1 Big West) got a point-blank goal from Tatum Porter on a Fabiola Zamora corner kick with 7.6 seconds left in the first half and coach Michele Nagamine emptied her bench to give everyone a chance in the second.
After presenting her team with a makeshift Big West championship trophy — UH repurposed one of its existing trophies because the genuine article had not yet arrived — coach Michele Nagamine flashed finger "hashtags" to represent her slogan for the last several weeks, "not pau yet."
Senior center back Jacey Jicha said the team worked to convince itself that it had high stakes on the night — essentially that it faced a dilemma similar to many of the program's previous years in that it needed the Rainbow Wahine to win to get in for the BWC championships.
"As a senior, it's a great way to go out. But then it's also the end of my soccer career and the last time I'll play competitively," Jicha said of the night's bittersweet emotion. "I'm not going to waste another game because I only have one more guaranteed and I have to work to make sure the next one is guaranteed as well."
The Wahine's 25 points (out of a possible 30) atop the Big West table was the most for any team in the four years the conference has competed in its current 11-team round-robin format.
"Tonight the greatest joy that I had was watching these players who've worked so hard every day at training," said Nagamine, who has the first championship of her 14-year tenure and the first for the program since 2007 under Pinsoom Tenzing. "Getting to see the gratification of getting on the field and getting minutes in a significant game. ... What a special, special night."
[Note: See below for more photos of Hawaii-Long Beach State senior night.]
Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Kennedy Justin recorded her sixth shutout of the year, all coming in the 10-match Big West season. She shared Thursday's honors with Natalie Dobler, who worked the final 29 minutes.
LBSU came close to equalizing against the UH reserves in the game's final moments. Nagamine said she could've lived with the draw; getting everyone action was worth it. Twenty-two Wahine saw action, including senior Carley Park, who came back from an ACL injury to play her first minutes of the season.
"We went deep into the bench, everybody got minutes, everybody deserved it," Nagamine said.
UH will face the winner of Sunday’s first-round match between fifth-seeded Cal State Bakersfield and fourth-seeded UC Irvine at Anteater Stadium. Kickoff is at WPSS at 7 p.m. Thursday and Spectrum Sports will broadcast the game. The championship, with an automatic NCAA Tournament berth on the line, is Sunday.
The last time UH won on senior night was 2013 against CSUN, snapping a winless streak of eight. Two senior nights were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"With all the emotion and build-up, to win on senior night is hard," Nagamine said. "We struggled all the time. But I think this group has, again, found so many different ways to impress me."
On Zamora's corner kick as the 10-second countdown was underway in the first half, Jicha got her head on the ball and Porter was able to trap it. The Alaska native, who took a rocket ball off the face earlier in the half, flicked it in under LBSU's collective legs. It was her fourth goal of the season, tied for second on the team.
"It bounced right where I was and I was lucky enough to tap it in," Porter said. "I'm just happy I could help our team win today."
After the match, defender Park, center back Jicha, forward Nicole Ando and forward Amber Gilbert were honored in senior ceremonies. In addition, "super seniors" Brynn Mitchell, Mia Foster and Fabiola Zamora were acknowledged after participating in the senior ceremony last year and returning to play one more year.
"We're all super hyped," Mitchell said. "It feels good to end regular season on such a high note. All our hard work from last spring is paying off."
Gilbert, a fourth-year junior, plans to return next season, as does senior Krista Peterson, who was out with an injury this year but was granted an additional year of eligibility.
Eighth-place LBSU (6-9-3, 3-5-2) was locked out of the six-team tournament by kickoff Thursday after the rest of the league played their season finales.
UH was 0-7-3 against LBSU as a Big West opponent going into Thursday. LBSU was the last Big West foe that UH had yet to beat as a conference rival; the Wahine last won in the series in 2004, when UH was in the WAC.
After the match, Nagamine got a congratulatory hug from LBSU coach Mauricio Ingrassia. The veteran coach wished UH well in the Big West tournament.
"I'm just really, really happy for Coach Bud and her staff, and the team," Ingrassia said. "I think they had a tremendous regular season and I wish them luck. I hope they can bring it home."
As to what Ingrassia thought made this year's UH team different than years past, he said, "They have a belief around them, and grit, fight and determination. They defend very well and they're lightning in a bottle up front. Any one of those players can come alive and score on you. They found goals, and they were able to keep (opponents) away from the net. The keeper (Justin) was very good, too."
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.