Tribune-Herald
Tribune-Herald
The University of Hawaii at Hilo soccer teams got off to a rocky start on their mainland roadtrip, falling to the Point Loma Nazarene in men’s and women’s matches in San Diego.
The hosts edged the Vulcan men 1-0 in a hard-fought Pacific West Conference match while Point Loma shut out the UHH women 3-0 in their conference game. The Vuls will play three more road matches over the next week.
“The men played a great game today,” said UHH Director of Soccer Lance Thompson. “They worked very hard and stucked to our principals. Unfortunately, we thought we had two goals, but both were not counted.
“But give Point Loma credit, they punched in a header in the second half and that was it.”
Point Loma Nazarene (4-3-1 overall, 2-0-1 PacWest) and UHH (3-2, 1-1) battled to a 0-0 halftime deadlock. However, the Lions got a header from Griffin Fuller at the 72:26 mark to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. Fuller’s goal came off an assist from Matt Steinhaus.
Point Loma Nazarene goalie Carter Phillips went the distance in the net to record the shutout. He had three saves.
UHH goalie Yonha Andrabi also played 90 minutes and finished with four saves while giving up the lone goal to Fuller.
The Lions outshot the Vulcans 18-8, including 6-3 in the second half.
“We put ourselves in a position to win,” Thompson said. “That’s what we have to do every match. Unfortunately today, we didn’t get the goals even though we thought we had two.”
The UHH teams play at Cal Baptist in PacWest action on Monday.
Women
• Point Loma 3, UHH 0: Tara Kracy, Natalie Swift and Jessica Van Loo each scored a goal to lead the Lions past the Vulcans.
“We didn’t play to our potential today and Point Loma scored three goals in the second half to win it,” Thompson said. “We didn’t start the game well, and it’s the first time this year that we played like this. We didn’t play by our principals.
“We survived in the first half and still had a chance. But in the second half, we didn’t play very well and Point Loma took advantage of every opportunity they got.”
Van Loo scored off a rebound shot at 57:01; Swift, off a Leah Porter assist at 72:53; and Kracy, on a header off a Porter assist at 82:09.
Lions goalie Lupe Herrera went the distance and recorded the shutout with one save. UHH goalie Jenna Hufford had six saves while allowing all three goals.
Point Loma outshot UHH on goal 18-3, including 10-2 in the second half.