Wahine on the road, looking for redemption

Two years ago, Portland State bested Hawaii on the home turf of the Rainbow Wahine. Now UH gets a chance to return the favor.

UH (1-2-1) plays its first road match of the season Friday against the Vikings on the artificial turf of 7,000-seat Hillsboro (Ore.) Stadium. The Wahine then travel down the West Coast to face San Francisco on Sunday.

Portland State might be 0-3 — including losses to Big West teams CSUN and UC Davis — but the Big Sky Conference team firmly has the attention of UH.

Why? On the Waipio Peninsula in 2013, the Wahine outshot the Vikings 20-5 — and lost 2-0.

"We completely dominated the match and then we ended up losing off of two counterattacks," UH coach Michele Nagamine said Thursday via phone from Portland. "That was a pretty tough pill to swallow. It was very frustrating, because I thought we played very well and created a ton of opportunities. They’re a team that plays very compact and gets a lot of players behind the ball. So we’re hoping we can utilize the flanks and take advantage of our speed on the outside."

UH is used to playing on grass — generally a friendlier surface for soccer — but proved it can win on turf when it went to Oregon in 2013 and won 1-0 a week before losing at home to PSU.

The Wahine’s 20-player travel party got a chance to reacquaint themselves with the surface Thursday.

"At first it was a little challenging," senior defender Lidia Battaglia said. "We were not really getting it, our first touch was off. We couldn’t connect our passes in our technical warmups. But, for us we were able to adjust quickly. We’ll have to get through it through warmups before the game. But I think once we start playing, it won’t matter anymore. It’s just the game that we need to focus on; it doesn’t matter what we’re playing on."

Battaglia and the UH defense earned their first clean sheet of the season on Monday, a 1-0 overtime win over Denver. In that one, junior goalkeeper Monk Berger picked up her first solo shutout in two years.

"She had an amazing freshman year, and didn’t get to play much last year for her sophomore year. Then she worked her butt off this past summer and she was really serious about it," said Battaglia, a co-captain. "That’s the type of keeper I would want in the goal, someone who really wants it. She’s been proving herself every day in training and in the games so far. So, we got the old Monk back, but new and improved."

Nagamine has generally given this year’s defensive group — featuring newcomers Sarah Lau and Elise Wassner — pretty high marks, a 5-1 loss to No. 18 California notwithstanding.

"There’s a lot more familiarity, and even though we have newcomers … they’re very seasoned players," the coach said. "Coming in with that kind of competitive edge, it’s been a really great thing for us as a team, because I think there’s a lot of confidence in the back now. Whereas last year we were kind of rebuilding and were terrified of making mistakes."

San Francisco (2-1-1) of the West Coast Conference plays Denver on Friday. Against two Big West teams, the Dons had a scoreless draw against Cal Poly and a 1-0 win over UC Santa Barbara.