2016 ended with a fizzle. 2017 began with a spark.

Nine months of offseason work, not rest, appeared to do the Hawaii soccer team good coming off a disappointing close to last season.

UH, with six returning starters and 10 newcomers on its roster of 27, began formal preparation for the 2017 season with a double-day practice on Wednesday. The first fitness tests are often a barometer of how the rest of the preseason will go.

The returns were encouraging.

“This is going to be a very exciting group,” said seventh-year coach Michele Nagamine. “They’re athletic, they’re fit, they want to learn. They want to make us better, not just for any kind of selfish reason, but I feel like this group has bought in already at such an early stage.”

That said, an exhibition against Houston Baptist (Aug. 14) and the opener against Utah Valley (Aug. 18) at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium are within sight.

UH (9-6-2 overall) enjoyed a 7-1-1 nonconference season in 2016 and was in position to qualify for its first Big West tournament going into its last four conference games. But the Wahine scored one goal the rest of the way against elite competition and found themselves on the outside (2-5-1 BWC, T-sixth) just as all other Big West seasons have ended.

A taste of success was only that. A taste.

“I think people are hungry,” Nagamine said.

The Rainbow Wahine have one of their two All-Big West first-teamers back in junior midfielder Raisa Strom-Okimoto (six goals in 2016). She and the departed Addie Steiner combined for 14 of UH’s 22 goals.

Strom-Okimoto made it her offseason mission to set a workmanlike tone for the team’s many fresh faces, offering a different brand of assist than the eight she recorded on the field (eight of the team’s 14 in 2016).

“It’s hard to tell now, but they all have a good mind-set,” the Aiea High product said. “They all work hard, good work ethic, so that’s what it’s really about. The technical stuff, it all can come when we work together, find that connection. But just having that good work ethic is what we want as a team.”

Nagamine said Strom-Okimoto looks the best she’s seen her.

“She’s just so intense on a whole ’nother level. She wants this so badly,” the coach said. “Everything is all heart with Raisa. I’m really proud of the way she’s worked and kind of rallied the team into a different mind-set. … It’s pretty easy to get one or two people to follow along, all your buddies. But I think to be infectious to the whole is really a difficult thing and it says a lot about who she is as a player and a person.”

Strom-Okimoto is picking up the leadership torch from three-time BWC second-teamer Storm Kenui, goalkeeper Monk Berger and four other departed four-year players. Returning mainstays include utility players Dani Crawford and Sarah Lau and forwards Sonest Furtado and Tia Furuta.

A new season means new opportunities not only for freshmen and transfers, but those who’ve waited their turn.

Junior Alexis Mata, who goes by Lex, is a strong contender for the starting keeper job after watching Berger for the past two seasons. She breezed through the Wednesday morning fitness testing.

“If I could sum up the last two years in … two words, (they) would be ‘learning experience,’ ” said Mata, of Woodland, Calif. “Seeing what I need to do, seeing the shoes I have to fill. I’m ready to go.”