[ UH SOCCER ]
Hawaii blows 2-0 lead
to tie No. 20 BYU
The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine soccer team battled No. 20 Brigham Young to a 2-2 tie in a nonconference match watched by 1,437 fans last night at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park Stadium.
"I thought in both halves that if we had stuck to our game plan we would have put this game away," said UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing.
"But, we played too defensively after we took a 2-0 lead and continued to do that in the second half. Some of the players just decided to do that. If they won't listen to the coaches tactics, we will be in trouble."
The Rainbow Wahine (13-4-2) got on the scoreboard first on a quick-strike goal at 16:16 by Natasha Kai, her 28th of the year.
Robyn deHay collected a loose ball just inside the halfway line and slipped a pass to Mia Moe in the BYU half of the field. Moe controlled, then put a through ball to Kai, who cut right around Cougar goalkeeper Ashley Smith and ground the ball into the left corner.
That came after both teams had shots find the crossbar early. BYU's Aleisha Rose shot from 22 yards at the top of the box, catching iron at 3:05, and Arlene Devitt's 30-yarder from the left side at 12:25 also ricocheted off the bar.
Hawaii took a 2-0 lead at 20:04 when Kai went high in the air to head in a corner kick from the right side by Devitt. Kai's shot was a foot inside the left post.
The Cougars cut the deficit in half when Brooke Thulin sliced a loose ball off the right post and into the net at 23:44. This followed a poor clearing attempt by the UH defense on Rose's corner kick from the left.
The Cougars (12-4-2) gained more and more control of the midfield after scoring and their defense was able to safely handle the occasional offensive thrust by UH during the final 15 minutes of the opening half.
The first 35 minutes of the second half were fairly even, although the Cougars got off more shots. DeHay sent a chip shot in at 50:20 that went over Smith's hands, but it hit the crossbar, bounced straight down and was cleared by Bobbie Tillotson.
BYU tied the score at 81:21 when Rose took a shot from just inside the box that UH goalkeeper Mahie Atay dove and blocked but couldn't control. The short rebound rolled right to Jennifer Henry, who poked the ball over the line.
The first overtime was scoreless, with Atay having to make one diving save on Annie Zwahlen and Smith having no difficulty taking care of every ball sent her way.
The second OT period was much like the first -- no scoring.
