Wahine achieve straight-days sweep

One-hundred and eighty minutes of soccer in a 26-hour span is no joke.

That was the requirement for Hawaii this weekend, and the Rainbow Wahine answered the challenge emphatically with a 4-0 win over Grand Canyon on Sunday at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.

By defeating North Dakota State and GCU on consecutive days, UH (5-3-1) won the three-team Rainbow Wahine Shootout heading into Big West play with a combined 6-0 score.

The ‘Lopes (3-9) pressured the Wahine defensive third early on but by the middle of the second half the WAC team — which lost to NDSU on Thursday — was the gassed side, not UH, which finished playing NDSU about 24 hours prior to Sunday’s kickoff.

“We weren’t really sure how our legs were going to be and our bodies were going to be feeling after playing last night,” coach Michele Nagamine said. “But the thing I was most happy about today was, we made changes, and didn’t lose momentum. I think everybody was 100 percent focused on doing whatever they had to do to get us out of here with a win.”

UH got goals from Lei Medeiros (fifth of the season); Raisa Strom-Okimoto (fifth); Mikaelah Johnson-Griggs (second); and Jenna Williams (first). Medeiros got things started by drawing and taking a penalty shot in the 18th minute.

“I was so happy for the team because this was our most complete game yet,” Nagamine said. “It started a little bit slow, but it was more so because we were being conservative. It was still kind of hot at 5 o’clock. And we weren’t really sure. We wanted to play at a pace we could maintain over 90 minutes, and not just kill ourselves in the first 45. … Then we started to get a little bit of a groove on and that made a big difference.”

#HawaiiWSOC gets on the board first vs. Grand Canyon with a penalty kick drawn and taken by Lei Medeiros. Her team-best fifth of the season in the 18th minute. pic.twitter.com/fhI8lc9PZu

— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 24, 2018

Nagamine gave some different players chances to start, like midfielder Kayla Ryan and defender Natalie Dixon. She substituted liberally. And perhaps most striking was a change to a 4-3-3 alignment, with usual attacking midfielder Strom-Okimoto slotted at forward.

“I think we needed to solve some questions that we had a staff about what we do in the final third and how productive we can be,” Nagamine said. “Playing now in a 4-3-3, we have our wingers higher up the field. It’s a different role for the people who traditionally play outside mid. But we’re looking for people who can go 1v1 and smack diagonal balls and make diagonal runs, and be a little more unpredictable. So we moved people around. Raisa, it’s no secret, she’s one of our biggest offensive threats. I think she and Lei are getting into a pretty good groove and they just feed off of each other. And then when Mik (Johnson-Griggs) comes in and and Morgan (Meza) comes in, that triangle in the middle, it alleviates a lot of the workload from the 2-midfield. We said let’s just try it and see where end up and we’ll go from there, and I like it. We scored some nice goals this weekend. Those were some quality goals tonight. It just makes us have a little more momentum going into conference play.”

The late goal by the redshirt sophomore Williams in particular, a spinning shot by the reserve near the top of the box, energized the Wahine half.

“We were cheering like it was a game-winning goal,” Strom-Okimoto said. “I think it’s just amazing having that type of energy from the bench and from everyone around. I think going into conference we kind of need that. And so I think that’s great for us.”

Strom-Okimoto’s back-post header, which came on a lob from Natalie Dixon in the 20th minute for a 2-0 lead, was the senior co-captain’s 15th career goal, tying her for ninth in the Wahine record books with Tricia Nishikawa. She bumped Sonest Furtado (14) out of 10th.

Goalkeeper Lex Mata was not seriously tested in recording her second straight shutout, and fourth of the season. Going into the weekend, Mata was coming off a career-best 12-save outing in a 2-0 loss at San Francisco, when she had to be constantly on her toes.

She had a combined 10 saves in the weekend’s two wins and was rarely, if ever, out of position.

“I actually felt pretty comfortable,” Mata said after the NDSU win. “Coming off of SF, when I had 12 saves in that game, it actually really helped my confidence. And coming into this (weekend), I’m like, no problem, let’s just do it again.”

Nagamine said, “It’s just contagious for everybody. Instead of going from the top and trickling down, I think it’s going from the back and trickling up. I have to hand it to Lex. She had a fantastic weekend.”

After the 2-0 win over NDSU on Saturday, Medeiros was ready for more. She said, “Honestly, I think it’s good we play back-to-back Saturday-Sunday because we can quickly learn our mistakes from this game and prevent it in our next one.”

It bore out.

UH opens Big West play at UC Irvine (4-5-1) on Friday followed by a game at Cal State Northridge (4-3-1) on Sunday.