UH hoping priest can rid the team of ‘bad juju’

Before Sunday, the Hawaii soccer team had never yielded seven goals in a home game.

With that dubious distinction behind them — UH fell 7-2 to Cal Poly at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium — the Rainbow Wahine will try to avert another "first" this week.

UH (3-8-1 overall) needs at least a draw at UC Riverside today to avoid an 0-3 start to Big West Conference play, a hole the program has yet to face since joining the league in 2012.

The last-place Wahine have some serious work to do if they are to move into the top four and qualify for their first Big West tournament.

"You can’t dwell upon it, because that’s not going to help us," co-captain Tiana Fujimoto said. "We have six games left, so that means we can have six more wins, and we can still make it to the tournament."

UH coach Michele Nagamine brought in a Hawaiian priest to bless the team and rid it of "bad juju" before it departed for this week’s games at Riverside and Cal State Fullerton.

Riverside is expected to play very physical, while UH has yet to beat Fullerton in Big West play.

"Actually the strangest thing is everybody seems to be very focused and very positive," Nagamine said. "I think it’s a true testimony to how they feel about each other, which is a very good thing.

"I think a lot of teams would’ve imploded by now. The tendency to point fingers and blame and not assume responsibility and accountability is usually very prevalent when the record is not a winning one."

While the UH offense hasn’t exactly lit up the league (1.2 goals per game), the biggest issue has been at the other end. UH has given up 10 goals in two Big West games, raising the season average of scores allowed to a league-worst 2.34 per contest.

Nagamine said she’s tried to rejigger the defense by giving junior Madison Reed more time and moving sophomore utility player Dani Crawford to the outer back.

Freshman defender Sarah Lau was used to playing on winning teams at Kamehameha. She’s tried to lend a voice of leadership during this season’s struggles.

"I’m not really used to (the losing)," Lau said. "It’s something different and something to just make me stronger as a person and as a teammate. You know, losing doesn’t always kill you. So I think it’ll make us stronger as a team."