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The Hawaii women’s soccer team hung with Cal Poly for more than 70 minutes in San Luis Obispo, Calif., on Sunday.
That left plenty of time for the Big West-leading Mustangs to put the match away emphatically. Cal Poly scored three times on 1-on-1s in the final 17 minutes to defeat the Rainbow Wahine 5-2 and put a damper on UH’s chances of making the league tournament.
After knotting it up 2-2 on Alexis Colacchio’s goal in the 51st minute, the Wahine ended up yielding their highest goal count this season. UH (6-8-2, 1-4) lost for the seventh time in eight games after starting the season 5-1-2. Six of those losses came on the road.
"We basically had a meltdown in the last 15 minutes of the game," UH coach Michele Nagamine said. "We were in there. … We showed that we could play. But they also showed why they’re No. 1."
Bianca Burright and Elise Krieghoff scored twice each to lead the Mustangs (8-5-2, 5-0-1). Krieghoff, the conference’s leading scorer, found the net in the 81st and 87th minutes to ice it.
The Wahine will have to win their final two home games of the season, vs. UC Davis on Friday and Pacific on Sunday, to have a realistic shot at making the top four in the league.
"It’s our last homestand. We’re not counting ourselves out by any means," Nagamine said. "I told the kids we’re right back at it on Tuesday, and we roll from there."
UH got Krystal Pascua’s third goal of the season in the 21st minute to make it 1-1, but a go-ahead Addison Carroll goal in the first half was disallowed because she was ruled offside.