Hawaii soccer: Wahine salvage point against Cal Poly

Thursday night had letdown written on it from the opening minutes for the Hawaii soccer team.

By the end of 110 minutes of a double-overtime match against Cal Poly, however, the Rainbow Wahine had picked themselves up, finishing somewhere between satisfaction and disappointment with a 1-1 draw against the Mustangs.

UH (5-6-3, 3-0-2 Big West) picked up a single point toward Big West tournament qualification — not the three they were hoping for entering the night, but not nothing, either. UH sits at 11 points with three matches to play, behind the 12 of Cal State Northridge (4-1 BWC) and Cal State Fullerton (3-0-3).

Coach Michele Nagamine scowled about her team’s lackadaisical start to the game, which saw Cal Poly (4-9-3, 1-2-2) capitalize with a head-scratching wide-open cross directly into the box in the seventh minute, Brooke Rubinstein to a similarly unmarked Sidra Bugsch. But Nagamine also credited her group for fighting back at the end.

“Going into senior night (5 p.m. Sunday against UC Santa Barbara), we’re sitting in a good position, but we need to close this out,” Nagamine said. “We need to do our job better. … Had we done our job for 90 minutes, we would’ve been just fine today.”

It was galling for senior goalkeeper Lex Mata, too. She’s made it her mission to get her team to the program’s first Big West tourney.

“First half definitely wasn’t us playing out there. We started off too casual, too slow,” Mata said. “And that first goal, we gave it to them. It never should’ve happened. Luckily it didn’t bite us in the butt in the end, but you know, we’re that team that never says quit, never says die. To score in under three minutes (left) just shows that yeah, we gave it to them, but we’re going to make up for our mistake and keep fighting. Learn from it.”

It was only after halftime that the Wahine really dialed it up, leaning on the tired Mustangs until they nearly toppled over.

The Wahine would get an 87th-minute equalizer from Kelci Sumida on a header shot redirected from Cristina Drossos’ entry into the box. It was Sumida’s team-high-tying fourth goal of the season (and third on a header).

Kelci Sumida gives #HawaiiWSOC with this header goal from Cristina Drossos with three minutes and change left in regulation against Cal Poly. Ties for team-high honors with her fourth of the season.

UH 1, CP 1 pic.twitter.com/XkIIY10LIc

— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) October 25, 2019

“I think we were all really confident going into the match, so I don’t know if we took it that seriously,” Sumida said. “But we really needed to fix that. And I think we did a better job in the second half.

“Cristina sent a great ball in, and I was in the right place at the right time and I just headed it in.”

Both 10-minute overtime periods were defined by UH’s frantic opportunities to score, to no avail. Play was also stopped for the referee, who cramped up late during the marathon contest.

This game is going so long the ref is cramping up in 2OT. The crowd is in stitches.#HawaiiWSOC pic.twitter.com/aeHSZjiDJT

— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) October 25, 2019

UH would finish with a 16-11 shots advantage after trailing in that stat at halftime, 6-3. UH remained winless against Cal Poly at WPSS in four meetings after blasting the Mustangs 4-0 in San Luis Obispo last year; the series now stands 7-1-2 in favor of the Mustangs.

“It’s still a result, and we’re still undefeated, and I’m proud of my team for that,” Sumida said.

Here’s where the Big West standings are at through Thursday night. Fullerton had a notable draw with UC Santa Barbara, while Northridge won its fourth straight since losing at Waipio to open Big West play. UCSB is lurking a win behind UH.

Through Nov. 14