Big West season means everything

It all comes down to a few games in October.

Just how the fortunes of Major League Baseball teams swing on a handful of postseason contests this time of year, an entire season’s worth of work for the Hawaii soccer team is on the line with the start of Big West Conference play.

Eight matches, starting Friday at defending regular-season champion Cal State Fullerton, will decide whether the Rainbow Wahine qualify for the league’s postseason tournament next month. They can get back to Fullerton — the site of the tournament — with a top-four finish over the coming weeks. The champion there advances to the NCAA tournament, which UH last made in 2007 out of the Western Athletic Conference.

"That’s the thing. When you start conference, nothing that happened before this really matters," UH coach Michele Nagamine said. "It basically just matters what happens from here on out."

After going 5-4 in the nonconference season, UH has an RPI of 112, fourth in the Big West behind Long Beach State (36), UC Irvine (54), and Fullerton (72). The Wahine were picked to finish seventh by league coaches in the preseason, coming off a 3-5-1 (sixth place) showing in their Big West debut in 2012.

"We’ve watched our competition play, and it’s legit," Nagamine said. "Our goal … is to go to the conference tournament. And that’s going to be a feat in itself."

It’s been Tiana Fujimoto or bust so far for the Wahine. When the junior forward scores, UH is 4-0. When she doesn’t, it is 1-4. Fujimoto is second in the Big West in goals with six.

The Wahine recently focused on converting inside the 18-yard box after posting massive shot count advantages — and little to show for it — in several nonconference matches, including two of their losses.

Nagamine has incorporated as many as seven true freshmen into her core rotation, including goalkeeper Monk Berger.

"It’s a learning experience, and now that we’ve been through half the season together, we feel prepared and ready," junior captain Krystal Pascua said. "And we know how everybody plays now. We’re comfortable. If we do what we’re supposed to do, then we should win."

UH will turn to its positive preseason road experience (an unusual 3-1 record), particularly wins at Pac-12 schools Oregon and Oregon State, to get it through what’s expected to be a bruising tussle on the Big West road.

"(The upperclassmen) told us to be prepared for the physical play, and just to keep your composure and work hard all the way," freshman midfielder Storm Kenui said.

A victory to start things off at Cal State Fullerton (5-3-3), the projected preseason champion, might augur a strong chance at the postseason. In its final practices before leaving for Los Angeles on Wednesday, UH worked on forcing the ball inside in its 4-3-3 formation, not outside, where the Titans’ strongest points lie in their 4-4-2 alignment.

UH should be relatively healthy for Fullerton and Sunday’s contest at UC Riverside (3-7-1) . Midfielders T.J. Reyno and Hayden Gibson are back in action after spending time on the sideline. Depth is a plus when matches carry a do-or-die feel.

"Oh, all of them do," Gibson said. "’Cause we want to make it to the Big West tournament, so we lose once and it jeopardizes that."