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Hawaii’s positioning for its first Big West tournament appearance remained intact after a 1-1 draw with Cal Poly on Thursday night at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.
UH (5-6-3, 3-0-2 Big West) played game-long catch-up after giving up an early goal to the Mustangs (4-9-3, 1-2-2), but Kelci Sumida’s equalizer in the 87th got it to extra periods, where the Rainbow Wahine had a number of chances to win it before settling for the draw in 110 minutes.
The Wahine sit in third in points (11) with three matches to play before the four-team conference tournament. They host UC Santa Barbara (6-4-5, 2-1-2) at 5 p.m. Sunday for their senior night game, then close with two matches on the road.
“Going into senior night, we’re sitting in a good position, but we need to close this out,” coach Michele Nagamine said. “We need to do our job better. … Had we done our job for 90 minutes, we would’ve been just fine today.”
UH entered Thursday’s match on the program’s best four-game start to conference play. But the Wahine came out listless and the Mustangs took advantage of an open lane with the defense on its heels. Brooke Rubinstein centered it to a wide-open Sidra Bugsch for the first goal in the seventh minute.
The Wahine showed an improved connection coming out of intermission and their chances built steadily. Goalkeeper Lex Mata made a stop on a 1-vs.-1 close-range shot in the 81st to keep it a one-goal game.
In the 87th, the ball dribbled out of the box on a corner kick, Cristina Drossos re-entered it and Sumida headed in the equalizer to the right post.
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