Hawaii soccer: Wahine brush off seventh-place prediction
Michele Nagamine wondered aloud at the purpose of preseason polls after another hot practice on Thursday morning.
The sentiment was not too surprising. UH was picked to finish seventh in the upcoming 2019 season by the Big West’s nine head coaches in the morning’s released poll.
“I actually think we will finish higher. But I don’t even know why we do this, to be honest,” the ninth-year coach said. “The preseason polls are one of the most crazy things. Everyone wants to know what everybody thinks, but nobody knows what’s going to happen. So I almost wonder, ‘why do we do this?’ But it is what it is. Usually, we’re (picked) last, and hey, I’m a glass-half-full kind of girl. So is this a step up? I really don’t care, to be honest. We’re going to keep working hard.”
Last year, UH was indeed picked to finish last and had its best Big West finish to date, sole possession of fifth (4-4).
UH lost its top three goal scorers from that team: Raisa Strom-Okimoto (12 goals), Leialoha Medeiros (7) and Sarah Lau (3). However, the Wahine defense — goalkeeper Lex Mata and the back-line rotation of Cristina Drossos, Elena Palacios, Taylor Mason, Kiri Dale, Natalie Daub and Natalie Dixon — is totally intact.
No Wahine players were named to the preseason all-conference team.
Here’s #HawaiiWSOC sophomore winger McKenzie Moore on the team’s seventh-place preseason poll placement and how the Rainbow Wahine are picking up the scoring lost from last season. pic.twitter.com/em4LxhN3ZP
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) August 15, 2019
“Definitely, I could see where (the seventh-place pick) came from, because Raisa was key to our success as well as Lei, and they’re both gone,” said sophomore winger McKenzie Moore, who scored a goal as a freshman and has netted a few during these preseason practices. “But as a team, we’ve come together and we’re going to get our scoring back.
“I think last year we were voted last, and we got fifth,” Moore added. “If we took advantage of our opportunity, could’ve got higher than that. So I think we’re going to surprise people.”
Defending regular-season and tournament champion Long Beach State was picked to win, followed by UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton as the teams projected to make the four-team league tournament. Cal State Northridge, UC Riverside, UH, UC Davis and Cal Poly are the teams projected to miss the cut.
——————
As mentioned right at the top, it’s been very hot out at practice at the grass practice field (and site of UH’s first four gamesf) on a daily basis. It’s felt like the 90s, or close to it — Nagamine said consistently between 86 to 88 degrees — just about every day at the grass practice field.
UH has canceled at least one of its afternoon sessions of its two-a-day preseason training routine.
“It has been unusually hot,” Nagamine said. “I mean, August is always hot here. But this year has been brutal. What we’ve been trying to do is manage their systems best as we can. Lots of hydration, Rachael (assistant coach Doyle) did a fantastic PowerPoint presentation the other night in our team meeting about nutrition, hydration and recovery. So they’ve got a lot of information. They seem to be handling it pretty well. Probably better than the coaches, actually. It’s been really, really bad.”
Noted sophomore forward Daelenn Tokunaga: “It’s definitely hotter this year, but (we’re) getting by.”
Drossos, the junior center back, did not hesitate when asked about the heat.
“I don’t know if it’s just me, but all the girls are saying, when you step outside, I don’t know if it’s the humidity or the temperature, but it just captures you like you’re in a heat bubble,” Drossos said. “So we’ve been really good about our water intake lately. Our coaches have us do a lot of things as to how much we lose during practice. Make sure we re-hydrate to make sure we don’t get any health issues due to the weather. But … I’ve never experienced something like it. It’s crazy hot.”
At the least, UH’s larger roster this year (30) has allowed the team to substitute liberally, even during its 11-on-11 scrimmages.
Oh, here’s some recent interviews with Drossos, Mason and forward Daelenn Tokunaga.
Here’s a few more video interviews with #HawaiiWSOC players from the last few days (THREAD).
First up is junior center back Cristina Drossos on team experience and battling the heat at practice. pic.twitter.com/bfjNK9L83t
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) August 16, 2019
Up next is #HawaiiWSOC junior outer back Taylor Mason speaking about the team’s veteran defense and the caliber of opponents arriving early in the season. pic.twitter.com/zNpFKODtOd
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) August 16, 2019
And #HawaiiWSOC sophomore forward Daelenn Tokunaga on what she learned her freshman year and the caliber of competition up top this year. pic.twitter.com/nAN7v45Ldl
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) August 16, 2019
COMMENTS