The University of Hawaii Wahine soccer team's 2001 recruiting class has been ranked No. 10 in the West Region and No. 42 nationally by Soccer Buzz Magazine. Wahine recruiting
class tops in WACBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comThe nine schools above UH in the West are No. 1 Santa Clara followed by Portland, UCLA, Stanford, Washington, Arizona State, Brigham Young, Southern Cal and California, a team the Wahine play on the road Oct. 1.
The only other Western Athletic Conference schools in the top 50 national rankings are Southern Methodist at No. 13 and Rice, ranked No. 49. This is the inaugural season for the Owls.
The Wahine recruiting class includes goalkeepers Erin Chow (Moanalua High School) and Jennifer Churchill (DeAnza Junior College), and midfielders Natalie Grouenewoud (North Vancouver, British Columbia), Kristalynn Ontai (Kamehameha) and Mia Moe, a transfer from Loyola Marymount.
The strikers are Natasha Kai (Kahuku) and Joelle Sugai (Aiea). Sasha Araya-Schraner from San Diego has the potential to play on all three lines and Tasha Rowe from Boulder City, Nev., is a midfielder/striker.
There are 278 NCAA Division I schools sponsoring women's soccer teams this fall. Beside Rice, Akron, Binghamton (N.Y.), The Citadel, Southern Utah, UC Riverside and Western Kentucky are fielding teams for the first time in 2001.
In shape or not?: University of Hawaii women's soccer coach Pinsoom Tenzing isn't worried about his player's soccer abilities, but he is about their level of condition when practice starts Aug. 15.
"Generally speaking, I'm very concerned about conditioning because of not knowing what the kids have done during the summer," Tenzing said. "We can not control that. They're on their own. The NCAA doesn't allow us to go out there for training. We can't even watch them.
"Conditioning is an unknown and there is no time in the fall to catch up, but we'll know soon. It's not a pleasant time for anybody."
Preseason poll: Hawaii was picked to finish sixth in the Western Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll. Southern Methodist received eight first-place votes. San Jose State, with three first-place votes and Tulsa tied for second. Fresno State (one first-place vote) was fourth with Texas-El Paso fifth.
"I'm a little surprised at us being so far down. We tied SMU and San Jose State last year and lost by one goal to Tulsa and UTEP," Tenzing said. "The only bad game we had was against Fresno State. And, I can say this now, but in the UTEP game (1-0 loss in El Paso), Arlene Devitt was slugged in the face after going down in the box and there was no call."
Newcomer Boise State, Nevada and Rice round out the poll.
Sophomores recovering: Midfielder Kalena Eaton and defender Liz Lusk, who underwent ACL surgery in the spring, are close to being ready for the upcoming season. Eaton has been doing sprints at about 80 percent and Lusk was cleared to do sprints Tuesday.
"The (right) knee feels good. I want to be cleared to do time trials when practice starts," Eaton said. I know I'll have to keep rehabbing, but I just want to get out there already."
She has been running sprints of 120 and 400 yards, but not flat out, more of long strides.
Lusk said her (left) knee feels fine. "I'm about 70 percent ready," she said.
The recruiting trail: Wahine head coach Pinsoom Tenzing made two recruiting stops earlier this summer, taking in the West Region girls' Olympic Development Camp in Idaho and the Adidas ESP camp in Wilmington, N.C.
"ESP is always a wonderful place to recruit. Adidas brings in 250 juniors and sophomores from all over the place and it is an extremely well-run tournament," Tenzing said.