All that separated Hawaii and completion of a rousing comeback was the 10-second countdown.
But Drexel’s Civanni Moss stunned UH with a goal with 11.1 seconds left in regulation, and UH settled for a 3-3 double-overtime tie on Friday night at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.
"It felt like a loss," second-year coach Michele Nagamine said. "I asked the kids to tell me in one word how they were feeling. Disappointed, embarrassed, exhausted, a couple other words that I can’t really mention. … I just focused on the positive, which was, last year we would have lost."
Facing a two-goal halftime deficit, the Rainbow Wahine rallied to take a 3-2 lead on Alexis Colacchio’s first career goal in the 81st minute, a breakaway strike from Tiana Fujimoto.
UH (3-1-1) weathered a number of free kicks by the Dragons (3-1-1) in the final minutes, and the last blast from about 40 yards out with the seconds ticking away was costly. A loose ball squirted away from goalkeeper Kanani Taaca and into the feet of Moss, who had a point-blank empty-net shot for her second score of the game.
"It was just a mess. A bunch of people fell everywhere," said junior defender Chelsea Miyake, who assisted on two of UH’s goals.
No one could muster a goal to win it in two 10-minute extra periods.
Drexel freshman Lauren Stollar, a Punahou graduate, scored the Dragons’ game-winning goal on Monday against UMBC. She came off the bench to play 77 of 110 possible minutes.
"It was incredible," Stollar said. "We were working our hardest and giving it our all to come back and tie it. (UH) definitely came back in the second half a lot stronger, more physical. We weren’t completely ready for that."
Heading into Monday’s game against BYU-Hawaii, UH managed to extend its home unbeaten streak to eight matches (6-0-2).
Nagamine talked to her team at length on the field after this one.
"She was proud of us for our effort in the second half," Miyake said. "Mostly. … It was hard for us to put it away."
"We have to learn from this," Nagamine said. "Eleven seconds, you can’t even take a picture and text it to somebody in 11 seconds. It’s just such a small amount of time, and we just weren’t ready to go."
Drexel got on the board first with a goal by Alex Vazquez in the 28th minute. Moss made it 2-0 by halftime with a putback goal after Taaca saved a shot.
UH came back with a goal by junior defender Erika "Storm" Nana — her first career score — in the 60th minute. Junior McKenzie McGoldrick tied it up at 2 in the 71st minute on a deflected free kick by Miyake.