Wahine soccer coach hopes 2-0 road trip just the start

The soccer team did in one weekend what the football team hasn’t in an entire season since 2011. And the energetic and animated Michele Nagamine is stoked, even more than usual. Road wins don’t come often or easy for University of Hawaii sports teams and her Rainbow Wahine soccer squad got two against Pac-12 hosts over the weekend, Oregon and Oregon State, both 1-0.

But she’s also keeping things in perspective. The season has barely started. She has 13 encores plus postseason to think about. UH is 2-0 on the road, but also 0-2 at home.

"That’s actually exactly the thing that kept me up last night," the third-year UH coach said after Tuesday’s practice in preparation for Friday’s home match against Idaho State. "I was so exhausted from the trip, but I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking what is the next lesson we’re going to learn here. Winning two games on the road doesn’t mean you’re good on the road. Not when you gotta play eight games on the road.

"My concern is now I don’t want to take home for granted. … Eh, it took us just as long to get to Waipio on a Friday afternoon as it does to get from Corvallis to Portland."

Kama Pascua, who scored the goal to beat the Ducks, played on the Under-18 team that won the 2013 U.S. Youth Soccer Region IV title and went on to the national championships in Kansas last summer. Covering three time zones and living out of a suitcase for a few days is nothing for the freshman from ‘Iolani.

"One thing is make sure we’re always hydrating. We fill our bottles up before we go on planes to make sure we always have water," Pascua said.

And plenty of down time between matches.

After the win over the Ducks on Friday in Eugene, the plan was to go to Corvallis on Saturday for the UH football game against Oregon State. But Nagamine decided it would be better to have the team rest.

"Getting onto campus (on football game day), it’s chaotic. The whole town is sold out and the place isn’t that big. You gotta find parking, then there’s the crowd factor," Nagamine said. "What I thought is it would really take our team out of the competitive environment and into the fan environment and I didn’t think that would be to our benefit. The game starting at 5, I knew it would be hot."

Instead, the Wahine remained in Eugene and broke down video, held meetings and rested for Sunday’s 2 p.m. match. And they watched the football game on TV.

"We got them to switch it from the Notre Dame game," Nagamine said. "The people in that restaurant weren’t very happy with us."

The extra rest might have made a crucial difference, as UH had to play the final 15 minutes on Sunday short-handed because of a red-card foul and accompanying ejection.

Nagamine credits 17-hour preseason training days on Kauai for the team’s road toughness.

"The approach we took is we’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves. Eh, you chose to go to school in Hawaii. You’re far away from everyone else. You have to travel far. Don’t whine about it and let’s get it done."

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.