Spread the wealth, or else.

The Hawaii soccer team is touting newfound depth and teamwork heading into tonight’s season opener against Utah Valley in the Ohana Hotels by Outrigger Shootout. By sharing the workload to a greater extent than past years, UH — picked to finish last in the Big West preseason coaches poll — hopes to build up a rapport and surprise its conference peers late in the season.

Having lost several meaningful four-year players and a one-year All-BWC sparkplug in Addie Steiner, while sprinkling in 10 newcomers, the Rainbow Wahine are taking that approach somewhat by default.

“We can rely on different people,” seventh-year UH coach Michele Nagamine said. “Some people I thought were going to be a little less along than they are. I really think their commitment to each other, to work hard when they were on their own (this summer) … they were the ones who got everybody going and organized themselves.

“We’re a lot farther along than we were last year. But that’s not to say we don’t have a lot to work on.”

UH is coming off its first winning season (9-6-2) since 2008, but couldn’t keep the success going through the real test of Big West play. The Wahine faltered to finish 2-5-1 in conference and missed the BWC tournament for the fifth straight year.

Nagamine realized she got caught in a trap of early success — UH got off to its best nine-game record at 7-1-1 — and burnt out her starters through heavy minutes as the season progressed.

Junior midfielder Raisa Strom-Okimoto, UH’s other Big West first-teamer in 2016, is the top returning scorer (six goals, eight assists). She’s a new co-captain along with senior defender Dani Crawford and junior forward Kellsie Gleason.

Outside midfielder Sarah Lau, a junior, is among the group inheriting greater responsibility. Just not too much, by design.

“I think this year’s a lot different than my first two years here, where we were dependent on one of our stronger players like Storm (Kenui) and Addie,” Lau said. “But I think this year’s really different because we have a lot of depth on the team right now and we can use a lot of girls. A lot of girls can get a lot of minutes and that gives the starters some rest. And I don’t think we’re going to die out like how we did last year.”

Nagamine came away mostly pleased with Monday’s 3-0 win over Houston Baptist in a preseason exhibition, in which the Wahine ran a 4-4-2 formation and outshot the Huskies 17-7. Lillie French, Kiri Dale and Paige Okazaki found the net, while freshman Izzy Deutsch notched two assists.

Dale, a sophomore transfer from Australia by way of Iona College, showed off a cannon from about 25 yards.

“I think usually I have pretty good long shots, and someone just told me to shoot, and I kind of just turned inside and took a crack at it,” Dale said. “Definitely if the shot’s open, I’ll always take it.”

New starting goalkeeper Alexis Mata, who waited behind four-year player Monk Berger for most of the last two seasons, looked confident between the posts.

But defense is the area of greatest transition and where UH is the most vulnerable at the outset. The Wahine no longer have Kenui at center back and two freshmen, Cristina Drossos and Taylor Mason, are set to start.

—

FORWARDS

• Returns: #8 Sonest Furtado, 5-5 Sr.; #26 Tia Furuta, 5-5 So.; #28 Kellsie Gleason, 6-0 Jr.
• Gains: #13 Kiri Dale, 5-7 So.; #15 Izzy Deutsch, 5-6 Fr.
• Losses: Addie Steiner (one year)
• Summary: Local products Furtado and Furuta will attempt to pick up much of Steiner’s scoring slack (eight goals), but newcomers Dale and Deutsch will get plenty of chances as well.

MIDFIELDERS

• Returns: #20 Raisa Strom-Okimoto, 5-3 Jr.; #5 Sarah Lau, 5-10 Jr.; #3 Lillie French, 5-8 So.; #9 Keala Parker-Lee, 5-5 Sr.; #17 Mikaelah Johnson-Griggs, 5-8 So.; #10 Spenser Jaye, 5-5 Sr., #22 Kylie Wolfe, 5-6 So.
• Gains: #6 Randi Fontes, 5-0 Fr.; #18 Leialoha Medeiros, 5-6 Fr.
• Losses: Lauren Takai (four years); Madison Reed (four); Ryan Daniel (four); McKenna Gleason (two)
• Summary: UH’s position of strength with returning starters Strom-Okimoto, Lau and French. The center pitch will be the backbone of the team in the 4-4-2 formation.

DEFENDERS

• Returns: #7 Dani Crawford, 5-4 Sr.; #24 Paige Okazaki, 5-7 Sr.; #11 Bo Samson, 5-5 Sr.; #16 Sammi Walker, 5-4 So.
• Gains: #2 Cristina Drossos, 5-9 Fr.; #12 Taylor Mason, 5-1 Fr.; #19 Sadie Lutz, 5-3 Fr.; #4 Taylor Rusnak, 5-4 Fr.; #27 Tanna Tuinei, 5-11 Fr.
• Losses: Storm Kenui (four years); T.J. Reyno (four); Elise Wassner (two); MyMy Baca (one); Mya Torres (one)
• Summary: Crawford and Okazaki must lay the line for a young unit as they gather experience. Drossos and Mason looked capable in UH’s preseason exhibition but there’s still a lot to learn. Baca was released from the team this week.

GOALKEEPERS

• Returns: #1 Alexis Mata, 5-7 Jr.; #30 Evelyn Fierros, 5-8 Sr.
• Gains: #31 Marin McGhee, 5-5 Fr.
• Losses: Monk Berger (four years); Hannah Gardner (one)
• Summary: It’s now firmly Mata’s job in the wake of the departure of Berger, who tied her own freshman record for single-season shutouts (seven) in 2016. Mata has made long strides since receiving spot minutes as a freshman in 2015.