Wahine add vertical dimension to roster

They sure look like a rebuilt soccer team. But will they play like one?

Several towering additions to the roster have the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine thinking big going into the 2015 season, which kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday against No. 3 Stanford in the Outrigger Resorts Soccer Classic at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.

A program that usually tops out at 5 feet 7 now has a 6-foot forward (Kellsie Gleason), two 5-10 defenders (Sarah Lau and Elise Wassner) and a smattering of players around 5-7.

“I think now that we have a mixture of short and tall people, we’ll be more better with balls in the air, balls on the ground,” said forward Sonest Furtado, an All-Big West freshman-teamer last year. “So, we’ll be well-rounded as a team. Especially off set pieces, like corner kicks, free kicks. Good to have height.”

Prior to this fall camp, fifth-year coach Michele Nagamine never had to worry about blending players of such disparate natural abilities. UH has typically been viewed around the Big West as a possession-based technical team with above-average athleticism, but not one that could overpower opponents through brute force.

Well, that’s not going to change. At least, not right away.

“I think we’re still striving to possess the ball and to move it around and be creative and dynamic, versus just ‘get the ball and launch it, get the ball and launch it.’” Nagamine said.

“We’re not able to change our style of play to fit one or two people. We’re going to stick with what we do well, and find ways to incorporate our newfound size into that.”

UH, 7-10-1 (2-5-1 conference) a season ago, was picked to finish tied for sixth in Big West preseason voting. That projects them to finish outside the four-team conference tournament; qualifying remains an elusive goal for the Wahine, but they hope to rectify that in their fourth Big West season. UH hasn’t posted a winning overall record since 2008.

This weekend provides the stiff first challenge of two ranked Pac-12 foes. Nagamine could open with a conservative 4-5-1 formation against the Cardinal, an NCAA final four team in 2014. UH follows against No. 18 California at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Rather than play each other so early in the season, Stanford and Cal will each play BYU, which is also in town for the Outrigger event.

“I always like to look at things with the glass half full,” Nagamine said. “The scary part is we’re playing No. 3 and No. 18. But the good thing is we’re playing them the first weekend. These are two teams we definitely don’t want to see later in the season, and I think everybody’s in the same boat; we’ve only had a couple weeks to prepare our squads.”

Nagamine generally prefers a 4-3-3 formation, a more aggressive posture that makes use of playmakers like Tiana Fujimoto, Furtado and Kama Pascua up top. But the back line is hurting this opening weekend with two center backs out: Senior Lidia Battaglia must miss the opener because of an accumulation of yellow cards from last season, and sophomore Paige Okazaki has a badly bruised toe and will likely miss some time.

That means midfielder Storm Kenui, the team’s lone Big West preseason first-teamer, could drop back as she ably did at times last season – when she wasn’t also shouldering the offensive load with a team-high six goals.

Battaglia, Kenui and Fujimoto were elected team captains this week.

Offensively, UH’s first order of business is replacing four-year starter Krystal Pascua. Pascua, an outsized presence at center forward, commanded plenty of attention which often freed up teammates to attack.

The pint-sized Fujimoto, back from an injury redshirt season, could have the same effect. The fifth-year senior will look to recapture her 10-goal form of two years ago.

But UH now has size and options. Gleason, who redshirted at Auburn last year, could factor in there, especially for balls in the air, where the Wahine have traditionally been at a disadvantage.

“I just hope to be up there and with my head … hold the ball and look to find other people, because we’ve got some incredibly fast people,” Gleason said. “It’s kind of cool that it adds a different dimension, I think. … We have a bunch of different tools (we can) use. We just have to figure out which tools do what.”

Lau, a 5-10 defender out of Kamehameha, has impressed Nagamine with a fearlessness not common among first-year players. An expected starter at outer back, Lau is the most prominent among several new faces that dot the field for the Wahine.

Meanwhile, junior Monk Berger has reclaimed the starting goalkeeper job she enjoyed during her successful freshman season.