Without 2 starters, UH soccer falls to Northridge

With the final few seconds ticking down off the scoreboard at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium on Sunday, Hawaii scrambled wildly for the ball and even had a couple of looks nearly find the net.

Unfortunately for the Rainbow Wahine, Cal State Northridge blunted the desperate attempts and held on for a 1-0 win, basically assuring UH will miss the Big West tournament again.

With its fifth straight conference loss, a top-four finish in the standings is out of reach for UH (3-11-1, 0-5) with three regular-season games still to play, barring a perfect storm of unlikely events.

"Well yeah, our record sucks and everyone’s counting us out," forward Sonest Furtado said. "But we’re going to go game by game. We’re going to come back and we’re going to try to win. Because it doesn’t matter how we started. It’s how we finish."

UH was playing without its two starting center backs, Lidia Battaglia (hamstring) and Elise Wassner (kidney infection). But the defense held up for 50-plus minutes with Storm Kenui dropping back from midfield and Paige Okazaki stepping into the starting lineup.

Coach Michele Nagamine also changed things up in goal, starting Erica Young over Monk Berger.

"If we’re going to lose, let it be like that," Nagamine said. "I thought it was a pretty complete game, I thought we created connections and opportunities that we haven’t in the past."

CSUN (10-5-1, 3-0-1), the only unbeaten team in the Big West, played a disciplined brand of soccer and held UH without a shot attempt in the first half. Meanwhile, forward Cynthia Sanchez created havoc around the Hawaii box with some blazing speed.

The winning score came in the 52nd minute when Lyndsey Preston crossed a UH misclear just above the 6-yard box to Breanna McCallum, who tapped it in past a diving Young.

The Matadors were yet another example of the overall strength of the Big West this season.

"These young ladies are focused, they’re prepared, they got a good attitude about themselves," CSUN coach Keith West said. "The belief is really high right now, which is awesome to see. As a coach, that’s all you can ask for."

Nagamine pointed out that six of nine Big West teams were in the top 100 of national RPI last week.

"So, it’s one of those things where we’re not there yet," she said. "But I think today we made some good progress."

UH takes to the road this week for matches at UC Davis and Long Beach State, then concludes play at home against UC Irvine on Oct. 29.

"They could go through the motions, but they’ve all agreed, they’re going to keep fighting and play every game like it’s our last game," Nagamine said of her players. "Because we’re not going to disrespect ourselves and our journey."