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Hawaii couldn’t sustain a fast start nor counter UCLA’s depth in a 12-7 loss in an NCAA tournament quarterfinal match on Friday in Los Angeles.
After the season finale, UH coach Maureen Cole expressed appreciation for the grit of the Rainbow Wahine in overcoming the challenges in a truncated season and optimism for what the future holds for a relatively young roster.
“Just proud of the seniors and the culture they’ve built,” Cole said at the post-game Zoom press conference. “The future is really bright. We have girls who opted out, Olympians who are still sitting out and the best recruiting class we’ve had ever coming in next year.”
UH freshman Lot Stertefeld had a hat trick early in the second quarter to give the Wahine a 3-2 lead, but tournament host UCLA ended the second quarter with a 3-0 surge and outscored UH 4-1 in the third to take control. The Bruins answered each Wahine push the rest of the way and advanced to face No. 2 Stanford in a semifinal matchup today.
Wahine sophomore Emma Van Rossum scored twice in the second half and Carmen Baringo and Libby Gault added one each in UH’s first loss since the season opener at UC San Diego on March 10.
Baringo closed her UH career with Friday’s match along with Mhairi Nurthen and goalie Danielle Brown.
UH entered the program’s seventh NCAA tournament appearance with an 11-game winning streak that saw the Wahine claim the Big West’s regular-season and tournament titles.
Stertefeld gave UH the lead with a goal less than two minutes into the match and made it 2-0 at the 3:52 mark of the first quarter.
After UCLA rallied to catch the Wahine, Stertefeld struck again from straightway to give UH a 3-2 lead with 6:38 left before halftime.
“One of the things we love is it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we’re going to be us and be confident and she wasn’t hesitant on the biggest stage,” Cole said.
UCLA tied the match on Val Ayala’s second goal and took its first lead when Lexi Liebowitz scored from the right wing at the 1:19 mark of the second quarter. Brooke Maxson added another score with 19 seconds left to give the Bruins a 5-3 lead at halftime.
UCLA continued to pull away in the third quarter and led 10-5 while UH saw scoring opportunities turned away by UCLA goalie Jahmea Bent or denied by the post or crossbar.
“A couple balls didn’t go our way, but (we) were getting great looks the whole game and our defense was really solid,” Cole said. “I think it was just a couple of turnovers that led to easy goals for them that separated them a little bit.”
UH closed to 10-7 with 4:37 left in the fourth quarter on goals by Van Rossum and Gault. The Wahine emptied their goal and brought in an extra attacker with center Lalelei Mataafa putting on the goalie cap to try to make a final surge.
Bent’s ninth save and a shot off the crossbar thwarted the rally and the Bruins scored two goals into the empty net in the final minutes.
“We just went into the fourth quarter and we were like we have nothing to lose, we have to keep competing, we have to show who we are and give it our all,” Van Rossum said. “We had one more quarter left we wanted to end it no matter what with the good feeling.”
No. 1 USC meets No. 4 Arizona State in today’s other semifinal, with the national championship match set for Sunday.
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