Spartans shut out Hawaii

The Fresno State Bulldogs celebrated "Senior Night" by blanking Hawaii 2-0 in a Western Athletic Conference women's soccer match yesterday in front of 1,553 fans at Bulldog Stadium.

The Rainbow Wahine (11-5-2, 4-3 WAC) finish conference play tomorrow with an afternoon match at San Jose State (5-9-1, 2-2-1). The Spartans beat UC Davis 1-0 in a nonconference match yesterday.

The Bulldogs (5-7-3, 2-2-2) enhanced their chances of qualifying for the WAC postseason tournament next month with the victory. The win ended a three-match losing streak to the Wahine.

Eight of the nine teams in the league still have a good shot at landing one of the six berths into the tournament. Tulsa improved its chances yesterday by beating host Boise State 2-1 in double overtime and Texas-El Paso made a statement by dropping No. 20 Southern Methodist 3-2 in overtime.

"Fresno State came out playing really tough, quality soccer. They should have been up 2-0 in the first 5 or 6 minutes and finally scored in the 10th, but it wasn't because we were playing badly," said Hawaii coach Pinsoom Tenzing.

FSU took the lead with a goal off a corner kick at 10:09 by Andrea Alires with an assist from Cortney Sobrero. Alires picked up a rebound from Sobrero's shot at the top of the box and drilled a shot that barely went in under the crossbar.

Midway through the second half, Barbara Davis worked the ball up the left side of the field and delivered a pass to Sobrero inside the penalty box on the right side.

Sobrero crossed into the middle, where onrushing midfielder Antonea Lugo struck the ball into the net for her first goal of the season.

"I thought we had the lions' share of the game, but I cannot say we created many (scoring) chances. Our strikers had a very quiet day and we just didn't create chances. There was no energy up front," said Tenzing.

The Wahine managed just four shots on goal, just one by top scorer Natasha Kai, although UH held a 10-9 advantage in shots taken.

"This was a heart-wrenching loss because SMU and Boise State lost," said Tenzing.