It was about as sadistic a nonconference season as one could conceive.

And other than a ball bouncing the other way in a few close matches, first-year Hawaii soccer coach Michele Nagamine wouldn’t have changed a thing about her punishing method for team improvement.

The Rainbow Wahine enter their final Western Athletic Conference season at 1-8, having been battered by a storm of nationally and regionally ranked opponents that figure to be well above the playing field of most or all of UH’s WAC foes.

The exception could be Utah State (8-3-1), which is currently ranked 10th in the NSCAA West Region rankings and is the preseason pick to win the WAC.

UH hosts the Aggies on Friday at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium to kick off WAC play, then follows with Nevada on Sunday.

UH will leave the WAC for the Big West Conference in most sports besides football after this season. Nagamine ticked two season goals off her fingers: improving every game and qualifying for the WAC tournament in Fresno, Calif., with a top-six finish.

"We definitely want to go out of the WAC with a bang. We want to try to leave this conference making the biggest impression that we can," Nagamine said.

Senior midfielder Rachel Domingo is hungry for a WAC tourney berth after the Wahine missed it each of the past two seasons.

"We had hard preseason games, but I feel it prepared us well for the conference," Domingo said. "We got our spirits back under us and we’re just excited. … Anyone can win on any given day. If we come out for a full game and not just a half, we can do it."

Despite being accustomed to a slew of brutal competition, UH — picked seventh of eight teams in the preseason — will have to overachieve if it is to finish in the top six. UH’s lone victory came in a 6-2 decision against Division II Hawaii Pacific, though the Wahine have been in most of their other matches until the final minutes.

"The kids feel they should have won some games along the way, and it just didn’t happen," Nagamine said. "To be 1-8 and come out every day and compete as hard as they’ve been competing, I think a lot of teams would crumble. There’d be a lot of finger-pointing, a lot of drama. But you know, I think everybody is buying into the fact that this year was about us getting better."

A couple of key starters may miss the Utah State match. Junior goalkeeper Kanani Taaca suffered a possible concussion in practice and her status is questionable. If she can’t go, UH will turn to soccer newcomer Keisha Kanekoa, the former UH women’s basketball point guard.

Senior defender Colleen Burns may also miss the match with a leg injury suffered in UH’s alumnae game last weekend, won 4-1 by the current Wahine.