Hawaii’s Big West Conference soccer tournament hopes took a staggering hit against Cal Poly on Sunday night.
Elise Krieghoff, the nation’s leading scorer, was held in check by the Rainbow Wahine all night — except when UH could least afford a lapse. The Mustangs intercepted a misplayed Wahine ball at midfield and Krieghoff pounced on a 2-on-1 situation, sliding the game-winner past Monk Berger in the 106th minute of a 3-2 double-overtime win.
UH (6-7, 1-3 BWC) battled back from a two-goal deficit in the second half, getting scores from Tiana Fujimoto and Kama Pascua. Pascua’s shot arrived in dramatic fashion on a breakaway with just 1:19 left in regulation, forcing the extra periods.
But first-place Cal Poly (7-7, 3-1) eluded the best shots by the Wahine in the two sudden-death extra periods.
UH played aggressively, going for the win over the draw. Krieghoff made the Wahine pay with her 16th goal of the season on an assist from Kacey Held, who intercepted UH’s ball as the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium crowd groaned.
"It’s an unfortunate result," said UH coach Michele Nagamine. "Elise leads the nation in scoring for a reason. ‘Cause she anticipates things like that, she pounces on it. She finishes the ball when she has the opportunity.
"The hard thing to swallow is, we have to win games at home. And we’re playing well enough to win games at home."
Nagamine’s team likely cannot afford to lose more than one of its remaining four BWC matches for a realistic chance at the four-team BWC tourney. The Wahine head back to the mainland for meetings at UC Davis and Long Beach State on Thursday and Sunday.
Berger came on in relief of starter Erica Young and had two fantastic saves in the first overtime just to get UH to the second extra period.
"Stuff happens," Berger said. "Unfortunately, we needed that win to move on. We’re not out of the running and everything, but we just really need to get over it and look forward to practice because we’ve got two big games coming up next week."
It was UH’s second BWC home loss in 10 such matches under Nagamine. Both of those defeats came in two overtimes.
"It’s a big-time relief. It wasn’t necessarily a game that we deserved to win … Hawaii was very good for the night," Cal Poly coach Alex Crozier said. "We just kind of battled."
UH dropped to 2-4 this season at WPSS.
