A second straight road setback has the Hawaii soccer team in desperation mode.
Cal Poly scored twice in the first 20 minutes and scattered the Rainbow Wahine offense in a 2-0 UH defeat on Sunday in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Combined with a 2-1 loss at UC Santa Barbara on Friday, UH (6-8, 1-3 Big West) was swept on the road and has some serious work to do at the midpoint of the Big West schedule.
Michele Nagamine’s team is trying to make its first appearance in the league tournament and needs a top-four finish among nine teams.
"It’s been only a five-day road trip, but it’s been a really long road trip," Nagamine said in a postgame phone interview. "This was a real tough one.
"Basically in order for us to advance to the tournament, we’re going to have to win out. The parity in the conference is crazy."
The Wahine have four matches remaining to make up ground, starting with Thursday’s contest at home against Long Beach State.
Sunday was only the second shutout defeat this season for UH, the highest-scoring team in the conference. The other came against top-ranked UCLA in nonconference play.
"Cal Poly did a good job of keeping pressure on our front three (Krystal Pascua, Kama Pascua and Sonest Furtado) and then making sure they had some balance in the midfield as well," Nagamine said. "We did have some rhythm in the first half and found some success there, but I think we ran out of a little bit of gas."
Since joining the Big West in 2012, UH hasn’t contended with Cal Poly, dropping to 0-3 in conference games against the Mustangs, and 0-5 all-time.
Shrugging off the hot conditions of a noon game, Poly (7-8, 2-2) got on the board in the 12th minute when a corner kick ball by Megan Abutin caromed around in the box and into the goal off of Krystal Pascua.
"That was a tough way to start it. It was 90 degrees, blazing hot. … We just started out flat," Nagamine said.
Reigning Big West Offensive Player of the Year Elise Krieghoff put Poly up two goals with a far-post shot from 10 yards out in the 19th minute, beating UH keeper Erica Young. It was Krieghoff’s league-best 11th goal of the season.
"That one was a very avoidable goal, but you don’t get to be the leading scorer in the country last year (21 goals) because you don’t know how to finish," Nagamine said. "That was our bad."
Young had five saves but fell to 3-4 since overtaking Monk Berger for the starting goalkeeper job.
UH actually outshot the hosts 13-6 in the first half. But the Wahine were outshot 12-2 in the second period, curbing their comeback hopes.
"We got deflated and fell out of our rhythm a little bit," Nagamine said. "And so this loss is easier for me to swallow than the other night (vs. UCSB), because we did not deserve to win today."
