Waves shut down Hawaii
in Outrigger opener

The nationally ranked Pepperdine Waves shut out the Hawaii soccer team 2-0 last night before 1,532 fans.

It was the opening match of the Outrigger Hotels & Resorts Classic at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park Stadium.

"I wasn't happy after the first two games, but I'm generally happy tonight," said UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing.

"The players stuck to the game plan. We wanted to give them their half of the field and counter attack. We will have more options when we get our midfielders (Gabina Bohlman and Jessica Domingo) back."

The Waves, ranked No. 18 by Soccer Buzz, scored their first goal on a penalty kick by Jenna Fodor at 20:41.

Fodor, working the ball in from the left side, was taken down from behind by Hawaii's Natalie Groenewoud.

Pepperdine's leading scorer, Megan Woods, had a wonderful chance to make it 2-0 at 24:11 when she split the UH defense, but Wahine goalkeeper Kori Lu came out, 16 yards off her line, to block the point-blank shot.

Two minutes later the Wahine had their first real opportunity when Aimee Cohen fed Natasha Kai a through ball only to have Pepperdine goalkeeper Anna Picarelli smother the ball with a diving, sliding save before Kai could get a foot on it.

A UH free kick by Kai from inside the arc on top of the penalty box with less than 2 minutes to go in the first half was cleared to the right corner by the Pepperdine defense.

"I thought that free kick at the end of the half was crucial. If they had scored the momentum would have changed. We dodged a bullet there," said Pepperdine coach Tim Ward.

"As it was, they made some changes at halftime, made the field smaller for us and we were kind of sitting and watching for the first 20 minutes."

Tenzing said, "They moved their outside backs up with impunity in the first half, but we put a stop to that in the second half. I want to counter attack more from the back, but the team on the field isn't ready for that."

The UH offensive thrusts in the half were mostly limited to long balls. Pepperdine had the better of the midfield play as the Wahine dropped seven and eight players back on defense too often to successfully mount a counter attack.

However, the Wahine had improved success working the ball into the Pepperdine end early in the second half. A three-shot sequence ended with Picarelli making a diving save on a low, 30-yard blast by Adria Campbell at the left post 11:26 into the half. Defenders had blocked the first two UH shots in the series.

At 67:33, Campbell served a ball through the defense to Cohen only to have Picarelli react in time to dive and grab the pass a step ahead of Cohen.

"Both of those saves were huge. They we put our starting strikers back in and they created the second goal," said Ward.

The Wahine outshot the Waves 9-4 in the second half, but other than the two close calls saved by Picarelli, the other seven shots were from long range and presented little danger.

A UH defensive lapse on a bad pass in the middle of the field 35 yards from the goal led to Pepperdine's second goal at 73:26.

Woods collected the errant pass and fed Lindsey Redlin, moving up on the right, who drove a line drive into the left corner.

Kelsey Baker, a freshman defender from Punahou, made her collegiate debut for the Waves with about 11 minutes left.

The Classic continues tonight at 7 when Eastern Michigan plays Pepperdine and concludes tomorrow when the Rainbow Wahine take on Eastern Michigan at 5 p.m.