[ SOCCER ]
Wahine on longest road trip in last 6 seasons
The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine established positive momentum with shutouts in two Western Athletic Conference soccer matches last week.
The team needs to maintain that momentum on the current road trip, the longest in the last six seasons, that has the Wahine playing three conference matches in three states.
Hawaii starts the 12-day trek at Louisiana Tech tomorrow, travels to Utah Saturday for a Sunday match against Utah State, plays nonconference foe Utah Valley State on Monday and finishes the trip at San Jose State on Oct. 21.
The Wahine will be looking for their first road win this season after going 0-4-1 in two earlier trips to the mainland. They arrived a day earlier than they do for nonconference road matches to allow more time for the players to acclimate the hot, humid Louisiana weather.
"It may sound unfair after traveling all night, but we got off the plane, got our rooms and had a 70-minute practice," said UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing after the team's arrival yesterday.
He also found out that tomorrow's match, the first meeting between the schools, will not be played as usual in Joe Aillet Stadium, Louisiana Tech's football stadium.
"UTEP is playing LaTech in football here Saturday and the game is on ESPN, so we have been moved to an intramural field," said Tenzing.
"We practiced on it today and it was absolutely horrific. The grass was unkempt and it was not marked for soccer, but for rugby."
The Lady Techsters (7-4, 0-1), in their second season of play, lost their WAC opener Sunday to Utah State 2-0. They rank third in the country in goals per match (3.82), but 23 of the Tech goals have come against NAIA opponents. All four losses have been shutouts.
That doesn't fool UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing.
"LaTech is a prolific scoring team. Any team that can score seven or eight goals against lesser competition will be able to score against good competition," he said.
One positive for the Wahine is that for the first time since the opening weekend there were no fresh injuries following last week's WAC matches.
"It's about time," said Tenzing.
He doesn't expect any lineup changes and will continue to split the goalkeeping duties between Kori Lu and Mahie Atay.
The two victoires last week over Idaho and Boise State were the first time in 2005 that the Wahine have won consecutve matches.
Hawaii is 11-19 all time in WAC road matches, but just 2-7 in WAC road openers.
BACK TO TOP
|
WAC standings
|
Conference |
|
|
|
Overall
|
Team |
W |
L |
T |
Pts |
W |
L |
T
|
Hawaii |
2 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
5 |
6 |
2
|
Nevada |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
7 |
4 |
1
|
Utah State |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
6 |
3
|
Boise State |
1 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
7 |
5 |
2
|
San Jose State |
1 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
10 |
2
|
Louisiana Tech |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
4 |
0
|
Fresno State |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
8 |
1
|
Idaho |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
11 |
0 |
3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie
Tomorrow
Hawaii at Louisiana Tech
Fresno State at Idaho
Nevada at Boise State
Utah State at San Jose State
Sunday
Hawaii at Utah State
San Jose State at Louisiana Tech
Fresno State at Boise State
Nevada at Idaho