[ WAHINE SOCCER ]
UH faces ‘treacherous’
schedule
The Hawaii women's soccer team has a 20-match schedule this fall that features nonconference encounters with three teams that participated in last year's NCAA tournament.
The Rainbow Wahine play Southern California and Brigham Young on the road and host Duke in their second tournament of the season at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex Stadium.
USC (9-8-4 in 2003) was eliminated in the first round, BYU (16-7-3) made it to the Elite Eight and finished with a No. 14 national ranking and the Duke Blue Devils (14-7-1) bowed out in the round of 16, but return 19 letter winners.
2004 UH Schedule
August
27-29: Ohana Hotels and Resorts No Ka Oi Tournament:
27: vs. Saint Mary's, 7 p.m.
28: Saint Mary's vs. Pacific, 7 p.m.
29: vs. Pacific, 5 p.m.September
1: at UC Santa Barbara
3: at Southern California
5: at Loyola Marymount
10-13: Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Classic:
10: vs. Duke, 7 p.m.
11: Long Beach St. vs. Duke, 7 p.m.
13: vs. Long Beach St., 5 p.m.
19: vs. Portland St., 5 p.m.
24: vs. New Mexico at Montana Tournament
26: vs. Gonzaga at Montana Tournament
27: at Brigham YoungOctober
1: vs. Rice*, 7 p.m.
3: vs. Tulsa*, 5 p.m.
8: at SMU*
10: at UTEP*
15: vs. Nevada*, 7 p.m.
17: vs. Boise St.*, 5 p.m.
22: at Fresno St.*
24: at San Jose St.*
26: at San FranciscoNovember
4-6: WAC tournament at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park Stadium*--WAC matches
Home matches at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park Stadium
"Our pre-Western Athletic Conference schedule is very treacherous," said UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing. "Barring Duke, most of the big teams we are playing, we play on the road. This is a huge challenge, but we have a veteran team. We are more prepared than we have ever been to meet that challenge."
The Wahine open against St. Mary's and Pacific in the Ohana Hotels & Resorts No Ka Oi Tournament on Aug. 27-29.
"St. Mary's is an excellent opener," Tenzing said. "When we first started, they were a ranked team and visited us on an annual basis. They slipped a bit, but they are back up."
The Gaels were 8-8-3 in 2003 while the Tigers finished 4-12-2.
The first road trip over Labor Day weekend has UH playing at UC Santa Barbara (11-6-4), the Big West Conference tournament runner-up, USC and Loyola Marymount (9-8-3).
Duke is joined by Long Beach State (9-9) in the second home tournament, Sept. 10-13, and Portland State (7-10-1) comes in for a single match Sept. 19.
The final nonconference road trip has the Wahine playing New Mexico (3-12-4) and Gonzaga (11-8) in the Montana tournament, then visiting BYU on Sept. 27 before coming home to start the WAC season.
There will be 36 players reporting to fall camp, the biggest turnout for the program. The reason is Hawaii loses 12 seniors from the 2004 team and has to begin the restocking process now.
"We didn't have much money to recruit aggressively this year, but we have four solid recruits," Tenzing said.
The recruits are Gabriell Bohlman, a midfielder/striker from Marin County, Calif., midfielders Amanda Brandt from San Jose, Calif., and Jessica Domingo from Kamehameha, and striker Jessica Scott from Tacoma, Wash.
Tenzing was satisfied with the progress the Wahine made during spring practice.
"We concentrated on making the field as big as we possibly can as soon as we gained the control of the ball," he said.
"Now everyone has to realize what they are fighting for and it is playing time and a position. Almost every position is up for grabs. The older kids also are going to have to think about sharing time with the younger kids for the future of the team."