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Rainbow Wahine
eliminated by
Golden Hurricane
in PKs
Natasha Kai leaves the WAC tourney
game early with a bruised shoulder
The Hawaii soccer team was eliminated by No. 5 seed Tulsa 4-3 on penalty kicks in last night's first round of the Western Athletic Conference postseason soccer tournament before 334 fans at rainy Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park Stadium.
WAC Soccer TournamentWhere: Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park StadiumSemifinals: Today: Rice vs. UTEP, 5 p.m.; Southern Methodist vs. Tulsa, 7:30 p.m. Championship: Tomorrow: today's winners, 4 p.m. TV: None Radio: None Admission: Single-session, $8 adults, $4 UH students with a school ID, $3 youngsters age 5-18. All sessions, $20 adults, $10 UH students with a school ID, $8 youngsters age 5-18. Parking: Free
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Tulsa (8-9-3) plays top seed Southern Methodist at 7:30 tonight in a semifinal match. Hawaii ends its season with a 12-7-2 mark, but was only 37 seconds away from a victory.
The Golden Hurricane forced overtime on a goal by junior midfielder Carrie Schnarre. Her long, high shot from near the right corner eluded UH goalkeeper Erin Chow's attempt to punch the ball over the crossbar. It tied the score at 1-1.
This came 4 minutes after Hawaii's top scorer, Natasha Kai, was helped off the field after being taken down from behind on a play on which no foul was called. She suffered a bruised right shoulder and did not return.
"We had been playing badly in the back for 10 minutes before that goal. We were out of position and not pushing the ball around the way we wanted to," said UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing.
UH's Pam Fong and Tulsa's Nicole Macia missed their team's opening penalty kicks in the shootout. Katie Ward, Ashley Rickner, Jamie German and Susan Day then converted for Tulsa, while Emily Rose missed UH's fourth try.
"We knew it would be a physical battle and we knew we had to play great defense on Natasha Kai," said Tulsa coach Rena Richardson. "We didn't have a lot of movement forward in the first half, but we did it in the second half and that is when the game changed. We wanted to slow play down, move the ball around and make UH adapt to us. We did that."
Hawaii had one great opportunity in the first overtime, as Joelle Sugai made a run up the left side and served a ball into the middle, but freshman striker Koren Takeyama's 8-footer was knocked down and saved by Tulsa goalkeeper Pam Devore.
The Golden Hurricane outhustled Hawaii in the early going but did not create any difficult chances against the UH defense. Chow did not have a save in the first half as both Tulsa shots were off-target.
At the other end, the UH shots were from long distance and not a problem for Golden Hurricane goalkeeper Devore. Hawaii outshot Tulsa 12-2 in the half, but only four of those, three by Kai, were on goal.
The Wahine took a 1-0 lead at 32:01 on Takeyama's fourth goal of the season.
She was set up by Robyn deHay, who dribbled the ball toward the middle from the right side. DeHay threaded a pass forward to Takeyama who took it close to the end line, then crossed and shot the ball from a yard off the line. The ball hit Tulsa defender Day and rolled into the net.
The second half was contested mainly in the midfield for the first 25 minutes. Chow made her first save at 72 minutes on a line drive off the foot of Molly Fitzsimmons from 18 yards away. A minute later, a Tulsa cross from the left side flew past a diving Chow but Krystalynn Ontai cleared the ball away from the open goal mouth.
A Golden Hurricane kick by Rickner at 77:33 from the right corner curled in under the crossbar at the back post, but the goal was disallowed by referee Bob Martinez for a foul committed in the 6-yard box.
A minute and a half later, Chow made a diving save off a short shot from a scramble in front of the goal following Tulsa's third consecutive corner kick.
Hawaii reversed the action and pressured the Tulsa goal, but Fong's shot from the left rolled past the right post and Kai's diving header off a well-placed cross from Liz Lusk was just wide left.
No. 3 seed Texas-El Paso 3, No. 6 seed Fresno State 2 (OT): Christine McCartney pushed the ball into an open net from 21 yards out at 98:19 to send the Miners into today's 5 p.m. semifinal match against No. 2 seed Rice (13-3-3).
Fresno State goalkeeper Jeannette Paine came out of the penalty box to clear a long ball, but kicked it into two players chasing the pass down. The ball squirted off teammate Cara Nordin to a wide-open McCartney.
"I'm proud of our players who had to come back twice. This was a very physical match, way more physical than when we played at Fresno. There was a lot of hitting going on out there," said UTEP coach Kevin Cross.
The Bulldogs (5-9-4) scored first on a penalty kick by Kortney Lewis after Mercedes Splettstoesser was brought down from behind in the penalty box by UTEP's Barbara Davis.
The Miners (13-4-1) responded quickly as Kristen Wernimont tracked down a loose ball to the left of the goal, slipped a pass back to Nordin, whose left footer went in under the crossbar from 12 yards out.
The second half started with two fast goals.
FSU midfielder Mary Trigg pushed the ball between two defenders to Antonea Lugo alone on the right flank. Lugo sent a loop shot toward the far post that went through the hands of UTEP goalkeeper Brittany Popoff and hit the net 2 feet inside the post at 53:25.
Miners again had a quick answer as Kia Sams carried the ball to the goal line of the right side, slid a pass on the ground that Jamie Tullius redirected into the net by the near post, to tie the score at 2-2 at 57:03.
The Bulldogs had three excellent chances from good range in the first 4:26 of the first overtime, but Popoff saved Splettstoesser's 10 yard effort. Kortney Lewis then was wide right on an 18-yarder and drilled a shot that Popoff grabbed.
