Friday, November 9, 2001
Lusk heads UH Hawaii has evened the season score with Rice and Boise State at the Western Athletic Conference women's soccer tournament in Dallas.
toward title tilt
For the first time in the
team's history, UH has made it to
the WAC championship matchStar-Bulletin staff
The big question is, can the No. 4 seeded Wahine accomplish the same against No. 1 seed Southern Methodist tomorrow night when the WAC crown and the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament are at stake?
Hawaii used goals in each half by Liz Lusk to blank the second-seeded Owls 2-0 in one semifinal yesterday. The Lady Mustangs had little trouble in defeating No. 6 Fresno State 4-0 in the other semifinal.
"We dominated the match. Rice was completely shut down by our defense," said UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing.
It is the first time in the eight-year history of the program that the Wahine have advanced to the WAC championship match.
In regular-season action, UH and SMU were tied 1-1 for 82 minutes before the Lady Mustangs (14-3) scored two late goals. The teams met in UH's only other WAC Tournament appearance, with SMU prevailing 2-1 in triple overtime.
Lusk scored the goals on head shots off corner kicks, at 25:06 by Jennifer Starsiak and at 77:40 by Krystalynn Ontai.
"I usually line up by the back post and make a run to the near post," said Lusk, a sophomore midfielder.
"There wasn't that much wind. On the first one, Jen sent a lobber in there. I just jumped and headed it down and in. I had to jump on the second one too."
All four of Lusk's goals this year have come on head shots off corner kicks.
It was the third consecutive match Ontai has registered an assist. The freshman left back has five for the season, tying her with Joelle Sugai for the school's first-year mark.
The Owls (7-9) opted to run an offense with long through balls, but UH goalkeeper Jennifer Churchill came well off the goal line several times to intercept the passes and negate the strategy.
She posted her second shutout of the season and 10th win, a team single-season record.
The Wahine (11-10) will have a very light practice today, a run around the park.
"We've played a lot of soccer lately. After the run, we'll talk about Saturday's match," Tenzing said.
"I think the softest performance we've had against SMU was the last time around (Oct. 21). We need to improve on that and capitalize on our chances. If we do that, we have a good chance of winning."
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