UH blanked on
Texas swing
With Southern Methodist, Rice and Texas-El Paso leaving the Western Athletic Conference at the end of the 2004-05 school year, it may be a long time before Hawaii wins a soccer match in the Lone Star State.
The Rainbow Wahine were 0-2 in their latest excursion to Texas after the host UTEP Miners rallied late to defeat Hawaii 2-1 yesterday afternoon.
This was a match of contrast, as UH (9-4-2 overall, 2-2 WAC) outshot UTEP (9-2-1, 2-0-1) 16-3, had a 4-1 edge in corner kicks and Wahine goalkeeper Erin Chow did not make a save while the Miners' Brittany Popoff was credited with four, along with a team save.
One of Popoff's saves came in the 75th minute with the score knotted at 1-1. The 5-foot-9 freshman stuffed Natasha Kai's 1-on-1, point-blank shot to keep the Wahine from taking the lead.
UTEP's game-winner was scored at 80:15 by Christine McCartney, who slipped behind the UH defense, took a pass from Kia Sams and beat Chow. It was McCartney's seventh goal and third game-winner of the season.
"It happened at the other end of the field, but my guess is, at some point, you have to hold the line and we could have done a better job of denying that striker the ball," UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing said. "It was a goal well-taken, but their first goal was a fluke."
After a scoreless first half in which the UH defense did not allow the Miners to get a shot off, Sams started the scoring with an unassisted goal off her left foot at 47:39.
"It looked like a cross, but it went into the net," Tenzing said.
The Wahine evened the match at 60:52. Gabrielle Bohlman put a ball through to Robyn deHay, who delivered a one-time, right-footed blast into the net for her second goal of the season.
"We had chances, but we didn't finish them," said Tenzing, whose team lost 3-2 to SMU on Friday. "These were two (road) matches we should have won, but we didn't. That's the sad part."
The Wahine return to Honolulu today and resume WAC play Friday when they face Nevada at 7 p.m. at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park Stadium.
