Little has come easily for the Hawaii soccer team thus far in the 2015 season. It was only fitting that Saturday night’s 2-1 win over Cal State Bakersfield came with an elevated degree of difficulty.

UH (2-4-1) got goals from Kellsie Gleason and Dani Crawford, their first of the season, but had to play 10 on 11 for 60-plus minutes after striker Kama Pascua was red-carded and sent off.

"I told the team at halftime that this was going to be the biggest test of mental toughness that I could think of," UH coach Michele Nagamine said. " ‘I definitely didn’t want you to get tested this way, but it is what it is … so let’s not be emotional and deal with the facts here.’ "

The Rainbow Wahine played with a more defensive posture, but still managed to get off attacking runs and got a goal from the sophomore Crawford in the 57th minute when a deflected ball went her way off Tiana Fujimoto’s foot. It proved vital; Bakersfield (1-4-1) got a goal back in the 79th minute.

"I feel like on the field we couldn’t even tell we were down one because our chemistry was really good today," Crawford said. "We covered for each other great I think."

Said Nagamine: "I was so, so proud of them. I thought it showed a lot of guts and a lot of character to respond like that. To score a goal with a man down, I mean, that’s really, really unheard of."

UH got on the board in the 19th minute when Gleason, a 6-foot transfer from Auburn, headed in a corner kick by Storm Kenui for her first career score.

After a foul on UH in the 29th minute, referee Daniel Rhee issued a straight red card to Pascua for her reaction to the call. Pascua, a junior, will miss the team’s next game at UNLV on Friday.

Nagamine expressed disappointment with her player.

"It was a physical game, (the referee) set the tone and we’re supposed to respond to that," she said. "She was getting hit left and right and getting really frustrated. I guess she blew him off. I would say ‘dissent’ was the reason."

The Wahine had to play the rest of the way down a body. But they still managed to keep the ball in the Roadrunners’ half the bulk of the time, and finished with a 19-4 shots advantage and a season-high 11 corner kicks to three.

CSUB of the WAC finally capitalized on its numbers advantage with about 20 minutes to play. The Roadrunners attacked from the wing and Chloe Peepgrass edged it over the goal line in a scrum before goalkeeper Monk Berger could pounce on it.