No one was quite sure what to call them.

Hawaii soccer defenders Chelsea Miyake, Karli Look, Crystal Fresquez and Lidia Battaglia have played nearly every minute of every match for UH.

Why? There have been few options in the back as the injury-wracked Rainbow Wahine (5-5-2 overall) host UC Riverside in their Big West Conference home opener tonight at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.

That endurance is worthy of a group nickname, no?

"That’s a good idea. We should start thinking about getting one," said Battaglia, the youngest of the group.

Leave it to Michele Nagamine to come up with an on-the-spot dubbing of her four marathoners masquerading as a back line.

"I never thought about referring to them as a group," the second-year UH coach said, pausing for a moment. "They’re very resilient. They roll with the punches. They know how to take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’. Maybe ‘The Timex Crew’ is what we’ll call them. They’re out there taking their licks all day, all game, and they never complain."

That’s even through four straight road losses — including a 2-0 defeat in their Big West opener at Cal State Northridge on Sunday. The recent difficulties have put the Wahine into rally mode (if they are to make the four-team BWC tournament) against the Highlanders (5-6-2, 0-2 BWC) in the first of four league home matches. The two teams were picked in the preseason to finish tied for ninth in the conference.

UH has been outscored 9-2 during its recent slide, but it can tie the program record for consecutive unbeaten games at home (12) with a win or a tie against Riverside. The defense, like every other aspect of the team, has been much better at home, allowing 1.16 goals per game compared to 2.66 on the mainland.

Including senior goalkeeper Kanani Taaca (who has played all 1,135 minutes this season) behind them, they are the team’s last stand.

Miyake, the designated ball clearer, has played every minute. Look (1,129), Battaglia (1,104) and Fresquez (1,050) are right behind her.

Miyake and Look, good friends back to their youth, were asked if the long minutes have taken a toll.

"This season I feel like we’ve been digging deep the whole game," said Miyake, a junior out of Mililani High.

Chimed in Look: "Like, every game. Especially the overtime ones. Those are rough."

At one point there were four of those in five matches. There’s nothing for it, though, other than to suck it up.

"We gotta do it. We have to play. There’s no one else back there," Miyake said.

Fresquez, a junior from Downey, Calif., said she doesn’t worry about substitutions. She embraces the "it’s all on us" mentality.

"I’m very prideful with that, because I feel like our coaches and our team really rely on us to protect the back, along with Kanani," said Fresquez, who has a strained knee but said she’d play today. "I take a lot of pride in the back line, because we do hang in there all game and we’ve got each other’s back."

The taller defenders, Miyake (5 feet 7) and Battaglia (5-6), handle the center back, where communication is key — they must relay Taaca’s feedback ahead to the mids and forwards. The outside backs, Look and Fresquez, try to force balls out and initiate runs past the outer midfielders.

Battaglia, a true freshman and natural midfielder, was thrust into action in the back once 2012 ‘Iolani graduate Amanda McCaskill, who was expected to make an immediate impact on D, went down with a season-ending injury in the opener.

"The first two games were like, it was crazy, playing, jumping right into it," said Battaglia, of Santa Monica, Calif. "Also, dealing with adversity, because we don’t have any subs in the back line. We’re forced to play a full 90 minutes. It forced me to be tougher mentally."

Look was likewise surprised when Nagamine asked her to move to the back last season from midfield.

"I was like, ‘What? OK," the junior out of Punahou said. "It was shocking because I never thought I’d play defense."

Now she and the rest of "The Timex Crew" are playing more than they ever imagined.