Has the Hawaii soccer team turned a corner from the corner?
Coach Michele Nagamine would like to think so after Thursday’s 2-0 home win over Division II neighbor BYU-Hawaii came by virtue of two scores off corner kicks. It was the Rainbow Wahine’s last official game before the start of Big West Conference play next week.
UH (3-6-1) needed a feel-good victory coming off a dramatic few days which saw Nagamine announce that striker Kama Pascua would not play again this season for personal reasons.
"I think we’re taking steps forward, healing and moving on," Nagamine said. "It’s what we wanted to see. When you play a game like this, against an opponent that’s hungry and has nothing to lose, those are the games that are very terrifying because you just don’t know what’s going to happen. We knew not to take them lightly, because they were a good team."
UH got goals from sophomore midfielder Dani Crawford and senior defender Lidia Battaglia. Crawford’s 14th-minute goal on a Storm Kenui corner kick was her team-best third of the season. For Battaglia, her put-in of a T.J. Reyno corner in the 81st minute was the first score of her four-year career.
"I’ve been joking around with my mom and my friends, saying ‘today I’m going to score,’ " Battaglia said. "And then today I said, ‘maybe I shouldn’t laugh after I say it.’ And what do you know, there it is."
Goalkeeper Monk Berger returned from a two-game concussion absence and posted her second shutout of the season. She figured it was good timing.
"It’s good to be back with my team and everything," Berger said. "This preseason we’ve been gearing it towards conference. That’s the big show, and right now we’re just trying to stay composed and positive. … We’re really gelling as a team right now, so the main thing is to try to keep that going."
BYUH did put the ball into the UH net on an indirect kick with about five minutes left in the first half, but it did not count because another player has to touch the ball first on such a kick.
The overall shot count was 14-7 in UH’s favor.
The Seasiders (0-3-1) had nothing to be ashamed of with a solid, disciplined outing. They open PacWest play on Monday.
"We were playing to win, and we really got a good idea who our starting 11 is for conference play," BYUH coach Mark Davis said. "I felt very happy, very pleased with how the girls played."
