In the minds of coaches around the Big West, the Hawaii soccer team starts the 2016 season exactly where it finished in 2015.
2016 BIG WEST SOCCER PRESEASON POLL
First-place votes in parentheses
| 1. Long Beach State (6) |
77 |
| 2. UC Santa Barbara (2) |
69 |
| 3T. Cal State Northridge (1) |
53 |
| 3T. Cal State Fullerton |
53 |
| 5. Cal Poly |
39 |
| 6. UC Riverside |
36 |
| 7. UC Irvine |
35 |
| 8. UC Davis |
30 |
| 9. Hawaii |
13 |
UH SOCCER EXHIBITION
Tusculum (Tenn.) at Hawaii
Today, 7 p.m.
Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium
TV/Radio: None.
Dead last.
“I’m not at all surprised because most of these polls are based on your season results,” sixth-year coach Michele Nagamine said. “You can’t really fault anybody for putting us in that position. We’ve got a lot to prove and we intend to do so.”
UH, which plays Division II Tusculum (Tenn.) in a 7 p.m. exhibition today at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium, struggled mightily last year to a 3-14-1 record. The Rainbow Wahine went 0-8 in the Big West, the second time they’d taken all losses for a full conference season. They had for the most overall defeats in program history, tied with two other seasons.
Nagamine picked Long Beach State to win the league, and her peers agreed; the 49ers garnered 77 points and six of nine first-place votes.
UH picked up just 13 points, meaning all but a few of the league’s nine coaches picked UH to finish last. Nagamine picked her crew seventh.
The Wahine did not have any representation on the 11-player preseason all-conference team.
“It’s not something I put a lot of weight into, nor will we spend a lot of time talking about it,” Nagamine said of the poll, though she added she would post it in the team’s locker room.
The Wahine have yet to finish in the top four required to qualify for the Big West tournament. In four years in the competitive league UH’s best finish to date is a tie for fifth in 2013.
Senior center back Storm Kenui reacted to the poll in an even tone.
“It doesn’t shock me or anything, because they’re going off last year, but this is a new team,” she said. “We’re going to do way better than how they placed us.”
Nagamine said a handful of players were not yet cleared to play in today’s exhibition for fitness reasons coming off injuries, including notable Northwestern transfer Addie Steiner.
The regular-season opener is on Aug. 19 against Oregon at WPSS.
