Nagamine looking for some offense

The countdown went by in a blink.

When Michele Nagamine was a beat away from calling out "zero!," Storm Kenui uncorked a shot from about 25 yards out, near midfield of the Hawaii soccer team’s compacted training area. The ball soared past the fingertips of goalkeeper Monk Berger and into the top right corner of the net.

"Yes!" Nagamine cheered loudly for the sophomore midfielder.

With last year’s top scorer, Tiana Fujimoto, out for the season after recent foot surgery, Nagamine has been looking for new sources of offense in advance of Sunday’s season opener against Arizona State in the Outrigger Resorts Shootout. In nearly two weeks of fall camp, she’s found a few.

"(Kenui) crushed one right at the end. Monk Berger’s a good keeper, and she just smoked it," Nagamine said. "It’s nice to see that someone who’s a sophomore, who got lots of minutes (last year), is stepping up and realizing that she can get into that shooting mixture."

It was often Fujimoto or bust last season — she had 10 of the team’s 18 goals. Nagamine is hoping for a more democratic approach to finishing going into her fourth year as UH coach.

Preseason All-Big West forward Kama Pascua is expected to build off her four goals as a freshman. But there are others — seniors Krystal Pascua and Hayden Gibson, sophomore Hallie Hernandez and freshmen Sonest Furtado and Kiani Halushka — who’ve offered promising offensive contributions.

"It’s actually better than I thought it would be," Nagamine said. "They’ve responded extremely well to the challenge to step up and put the ball in the back of the net."

Nagamine said Krystal Pascua, a senior with three years of starting experience, is the only lock among three starting forward spots at the moment.

Kenui is among those looking to contribute from midfield. The Moanalua alumnus started 16 of 17 games last season but was not counted on to finish shots.

"Well, my freshman year I realized I haven’t been taking (many) shots," Kenui said. "And this year, it’s actually a goal of mine to put more shots in than I did last year."

Another sophomore, TJ Reyno, showed offensive promise as a freshman (one goal, one assist) and is looking to expand on that role either as a forward or attacking mid.

"I think anyone can score," said Reyno, who missed the last week of practice with a head injury but is expected to return Tuesday. "Anyone has the ability to score, wherever, if they have confidence in themselves to score."

Captains named

Nagamine said her team captains for the 2014 season are Hayden Gibson, Ashley Haruki, Krystal Pascua and Alexis Colacchio, as chosen by their teammates. All four are seniors.

Players who were around for spring training comprised the vote.

Olotoa likely redshirting

Sophomore forward Justine Olotoa will likely redshirt the season after suffering a severe knee injury at the start of fall practices, Nagamine said. She recently had surgery to repair her ACL and MCL.

Olotoa, out of Mater Dei High in California, would have provided depth at outside defender as well.

"Tini is a very big inspiration to a lot of us, staff and players," Nagamine said. "I know a lot of the kids really want to do well for her."