Rainbow Wahine
settle for scoreless tie
against BYU

The Hawaii soccer team could not dent the net in its third visit to Brigham Young's South Stadium, but managed to also hold the Cougars scoreless yesterday.

Beaten 7-0 in 1996 and 1998 at Provo, Utah, the Rainbow Wahine settled for 0-0 tie after battling the Mountain West Conference team for 110 minutes yesterday.

The Wahine (7-2-2) were outshot 14-9 but had their scoring opportunities.

Natasha Kai had two breakaway chances in the first half. BYU (3-6-2) goalkeeper Erika Woodbury stopped Kai's first attempt, a low shot in the 23rd minute, and the junior striker put the second one over the bar in the 37th minute.

"We should have had some goals, but it wasn't our day to put them away," said UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing. "Their goalkeeper had a dream night. She continually managed to tip balls away from the goal."

Wahine midfielder Seline Williams hit the crossbar from 35 yards out in the second half and Woodbury blocked a point-blank shot by sophomore midfielder Kelly McCloskey seven minutes into overtime.

"It was a very good game. I'm very proud of my players. This was the third game in four days and Mondays are (traditionally) very bad for us," said Tenzing. "We played a very good team. I think we deserved to win, but the result doesn't show it. That's the sad part."

Tenzing praised senior defenders Krystalynn Ontai, Jessica Uecker and Liz Lusk for their job against the BYU strikers.

The match was physical with 31 fouls called. Three UH players, Kai, Joelle Ontai and Jessica Domingo, received yellow cards. No Brigham Young player was carded.

It was the third consecutive shutout for UH. Junior goalkeeper Mahie Atay has not allowed a goal in the last 280 minutes.

Hawaii is now 8-0-1 in its last nine regular-season matches on the road. The Wahine are undefeated in their last 11 overtime matches (5-0-6).

The Wahine return home today and open Western Athletic Conference play Friday against Rice at 7 p.m. at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park Stadium.

Note: Natasha Kai was named the Western Athletic Conference offensive player of the week yesterday. She had the game-winning goal against New Mexico Friday and scored a goal and assisted on another in Sunday's win over Gonzaga. This is the second time Kai has been cited this year and the eighth time in her career.