Hawaii soccer team
kicks off road trip
at Northridge
The Hawaii women's soccer team begins its first mainland road trip of the season tomorrow with a match at Cal State Northridge.
The Rainbow Wahine (1-1) also play matches at Long Beach State on Sunday and UC Riverside on Monday.
"I know we are going to have to deal with the heat. That will be the biggest factor," Hawaii coach Pinsoom Tenzing said. "I know it sounds funny coming from Hawaii, but it is a different kind of heat."
He says the first match against the Matadors is "uncompleted business."
Two years ago the Matadors (0-1) were scheduled to play two matches against UH at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park but canceled the second one after winning the first 3-2. CSUN officials said they thought the second match would be too rough. In the first match a Matador player put UH midfielder Kalena Eaton out for the season with a knee injury.
"There was no reason why they shouldn't have played the second game," Tenzing said.
Playing three matches in four days with an 18-player travel roster concerns the UH coach.
"It's going to be a test, especially the last game, a game I'm always fearful of because the kids are tired and they have been away from home a long time," Tenzing said. "I don't like the games on the road, but we had late cancellations and had to pick up games on the road."
This past weekend, the Rainbow Wahine received solid efforts from wing midfielders Natalie Groenewoud on the right and Joelle Sugai on the left. They played nonstop from 18-yard line to 18-yard line, getting back on defense when necessary, yet showing up at the other end to augment the offense by serving balls into the middle from the corners.
Tenzing wants to make sure Groenewoud and Sugai get 10 minutes rest either side of halftime. He found the help needed to accomplish that when Kimi Tiampo, a junior transfer from Seton Hall via Irvine, Calif., played well in the Bowling Green match.
Long Beach State (0-2) lost to San Diego and Stanford by 1-0 scores last week and plays San Diego State today. UC Riverside (1-1) plays Gonzaga tomorrow.
Notes: Hawaii trails CSUN 3-1 and UC Riverside 1-0 in the all-time series results and tied Long Beach State in the only meeting. ... The Wahine are 3-6 in road season openers and 25-59-3 all time on the mainland. ... In the Matadors season-opening 2-0 loss to Loyola Marymount, Kailua's Shari Nishikawa scored the first goal for the Lions.
