WAIPAHU – The UH-Hilo women’s soccer team posted a 3-1 victory over HPU, with goals scored by the trio of Filippa Graneld, Teani Arakawa and Alyssa Padron on Tuesday afternoon at the Waip‘io Peninsula Soccer Stadium in a non-conference contest.
The Vulcans outshot the Sharks 19-4 with HPU goalkeeper Sophia Garrido recording 11 saves.
Graneld got UH-Hilo on the scoreboard first in the 19th minute by putting away Arakawa’s shot that slid past the keeper but ricocheted off the left post.
Then in the 59th minute, Arakawa took a through ball down the left side and volleyed over the keeper before flushing it in. Padron later closed it out with a header in the 65th minute off a free kick from Graneld. All three also factored into the Vulcans’ three goals in a 3-1 win over Stanislaus State last week.
Arakawa — who was named PacWest Conference Player of the Week for the second time this season — has now collected 26 points (10 goals and six assists) over the last 10 games going back through the end-portion of last season.
Prior to Tuesday’s match, the Maui native was ranked No. 9 in the NCAA Division II for goals per game (1.00) and points per game (2.67), in addition to No. 16 for assists per game (0.67).
HPU prevented the shutout with a score in the 72nd minute by Carissa Miller
UH-Hilo moved to a 3-0-1 record (0-0-0 Pacific West Conference) while HPU moved to 0-4-1 (0-0-0 PacWest).
The Vulcans will return home to close out the non-conference slate with a matchup against Chamiande on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 3 p.m. The UH-Hilo Men’s Soccer team will also be in action against the Silverswords starting at 12:30 p.m.
UH-Hilo and HPU will play again Oct. 7 in a PacWest Conference game at the Vulcan Soccer Field.
NO. 8 RANKING
A week after falling out of the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division II Poll, the UH-Hilo Women’s Soccer team is back in the rankings, this time landing inside the top 10 at No. 8 in the country.
Two weeks prior, the Vulcans had moved up two spots from it’s previous preseason ranking of No. 14. After a scoreless draw with Northwest Nazarene on Sept. 5, UH-Hilo was seemingly left off of every ballot submitted to the United Soccer Coaches Week 2 poll. The back-to-back PacWest Conference Champions were not listed as having received any votes and also dropped out entirely of the West region rankings.
Ashland University (5-0-0) came in at the top spot for the second consecutive week.
