The Hawaii women’s soccer team was mathematically eliminated from making the Big West Conference tournament before it took the field on Sunday.

That didn’t lessen the meaning of senior night vs. Pacific in the slightest.

Junior defender Chelsea Miyake sent the five outgoing Rainbow Wahine seniors off happy with a penalty-kick goal in the 70th minute, giving UH a 2-1 win over the Tigers at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.

Kanani Taaca, Amber Fuller, Rachel Domingo, Christy Watanabe and Michelle Nakasone were piled high with lei minutes after the final horn sounded.

"It’s indescribable. It’s just happy, excited, but I felt sadness though, because it’s a farewell," said Watanabe, who assisted on UH’s first goal, a strike by Tiana Fujimoto in the 55th minute. "We ended on such a good note, I can’t help but be happy."

Taaca, a four-year starter in goal, said the outcome was "the cherry on top to come out with the win."

The team knew going in what wins earlier Sunday by Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Northridge meant — no tourney.

"That was our big goal, to make it to the tournament," Taaca said. "But now we’re just trying to leave a legacy. We want to end the season with four (straight) wins."

UH finished 7-1-2 at home this season. The last time the Wahine notched eight overall wins was in 2008, also the last time the Wahine finished with a winning overall record (8-7-4).

A winning mark is something they can still attain, albeit with challenging road matches at Long Beach State and UC Irvine this week.

Only the top four teams in the Big West make the league tournament. The most points in the standings UH can finish with is 15, and the current fourth-place team — Cal State Fullerton — has 15 points and a head-to-head win over UH.

"We’re going to play it out like we’re going to the tournament, because that’s how we roll," UH coach Michele Nagamine said. "It’s not that we don’t care; it’s a journey we’ve been on all season long.

"True to our form we wanted to give our crowd an entertaining show, and I think we did that tonight."

This was the only time these two teams would meet as league foes; UOP leaves for the West Coast Conference after this academic year. However, the teams have met regularly in nonconference play. It was UH’s first win over the Tigers in the last eight meetings, with the previous one coming in 1997.

Sophomore forward Tiana Fujimoto got UH on the board 11 minutes into the second half by completing a lob pass set up by Watanabe and Krystal Pascua.

It was her team-best eighth goal of the season, putting her within a goal of cracking the UH career top 10 in just her second season.

Pacific (3-12-1, 0-6-1) equaled in the 62nd minute on a Brittni Beeman goal crossed into the box by Laura Hernandez.

Ashley Haruki was brought down in the box with 20 minutes left, setting up a penalty kick by Miyake. She has a penchant for going right, and did so again in going 3-for-3 on PKs this season.

"Once (Pacific) scored, that’s all I was thinking about," Miyake said of her fourth goal of the year. "I don’t want (the seniors) to go. They’re good friends. … I want them to come back next year."

Effective attack runs were hard to come by early against the Tigers, who routinely muscled the smaller Wahine off the ball and outshot the hosts 9-2 in the first half. The final margin was 11-8 for the visitors.

Two local girls, Sasha Moscatello (Mililani) and Liz Higashino (Kamehameha) started for Pacific. Moscatello had a 25-yard shot go just wide of the left post midway through the first half.

The four healthy UH seniors — Domingo had her season ended early by a torn ACL — all got the starting nod.