[ WAHINE SOCCER ]
Cornell hands
Hawaii 2-0 loss
The Hawaii women's soccer team played a quality team for the second time this season and was not able to handle the challenge or score a goal.
Cornell of the Ivy League traveled 5,000 miles for one match at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park stadium last night and went home with a 2-0 victory. The Big Red (4-1-1) played smart, field-wise, hustling soccer that frustrated the Rainbow Wahine (5-2-1), who suffered their second loss of the season.
"Cornell is a very well-coached team," UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing said. "We played exceedingly bad tonight, had trouble with our passing and had a lack of energy from the get-go."
The Big Red took advantage of lax defensive play by the Wahine to score 6:54 into the match. Shannon Fraser picked up a free ball just outside the penalty box to the left of the UH goal. When a UH defender moved to cover Fraser, she slipped a pass to an unmarked Emily Knight, who beat UH goalkeeper Mahie Atay with a low shot from 14 yards out.
The Wahine controlled 60 percent of the action in the first half but only had one dangerous shot. Robyn deHay sent a rebound past Cornell goalkeeper Katie Thomas at 21:18 only to have defender Lindsay Rovegno clear the ball away 2 yards in front of the goal line.
Natasha Kai got off two shots, but both were of the turn-and-shoot variety, had little steam and were handled easily by Thomas.
Both teams moved the ball well using the short-pass game, but the Big Red were better at anticipating and intercepting UH passes. Cornell's defense nullified the fast break, forcing the Wahine to move the ball around the field and probe to find openings. They rarely had success at this. As the match wore on the space between the UH midfielders and strikers increased, making attacking more difficult.
"We were not competing for the ball in the air or at midfield," Tenzing said. "We had trouble with their deep sweeper and we're going to see that in our next two matches."
The Big Red increased their lead at 56:42 of the second half when Fraser took advantage of indecision on the left side of the UH defense, broke clear and angled a shot from the right into the left corner past a charging Atay.
The Wahine had one excellent chance in the second half when deHay worked the ball down the right side, shot but sent the rebound past Thomas only to see the ball bounce off the right post.
The Wahine leave Tuesday for the mainland and open Western Athletic Conference play at Rice on Friday.
