A brief moment of confusion was following by a collective sign of relief for the University of Hawai‘i soccer team on Sunday afternoon against New Mexico.
The Rainbow Wahine knew a win against the Lobos would clinch a berth in the four-team Mountain West Conference tournament and aimed to gain the three points that came with it. But how about a tie?
It turns out UH's 2-2 draw against New Mexico was just enough to clinch a spot. Heading into the final week of regular season play, the 'Bows will have the comfort of knowing they're in regardless of how each team's regular season finale plays out.
"The tie, it was a bummer, obviously, but when the coaches broke the news to us that we clinched the tournament, we were all super excited," junior defender Piper Bertani said. "We obviously still have business to finish. ... It was super exciting [to clinch]. But some of us did the math before, so then we were like, oh, we kind of figured."
This week, the 'Bows will head to the continent with no scheduled return flight. After their regular season finale at Wyoming on Saturday at 9 a.m. HST, the team will then head to Phoenix for the Mountain West tournament. The semifinals are set to take place on Nov. 11, with the championship match set for Nov. 14.
"It's our first year in the conference, and that's a really tough conference considering the road trips we go on, and we still have one more," associate head coach Ula Rowe said following the team's first practice of the week. "What we didn't want to do was leave it all on the table at Wyoming, especially having to play there is really tough. We're going to go, we're going to chase it, we're going to you know try and get that W because at the end of the day, that'll set us up nicely going into the tournament."
Hawai‘i can be seeded anywhere from 2 to 4 after Colorado College clinched the regular season title. Wyoming, meanwhile, is currently the fifth team in the standings and are desperately looking to enter the top four.
Despite their cushy spot in the standings, the Rainbow Wahine have no plans to hold anything back in Saturday's match.
"Absolutely not," Rowe said. "The strategy remains the same. I think for us too, the [Sept. 27] Air Force win at altitude was massive. If we can go 1,022 feet higher and try to snake some points away from there, that's going to be big because [Wyoming] doesn't get beat often at home.
"After Saturday's game, it's do or die. You don't get another chance. Being able to execute under pressure like that says a lot. And I think right now we're just having them focus on like one step at a time. We're not looking to Phoenix at all yet. We're glad we're there, but we got to take care of Wyoming because we could play [Saturday] then play them again [on Nov. 11], and that's tough to play the same opponent back-to-back because that's not really done in soccer. I think our job is to just take care of Wyoming first on Saturday and then see where everybody falls seeding wise and then we'll prepare for that next game."
Beyond what another victory would do for the team ahead of postseason play, getting another win for head coach Michele "Bud" Nagamine has been a major source of motivation for the entire team. Nagamine is currently at 99 career victories at the Division I level.
"The impact that Bud's had on this program is something that everyone knows," Bertani said. "She is the face of our team. She's a great coach. Every single person loves her, and we all want to do it for her because she deserves that. And what she's done for our team is something that's so special. We just all want to do it for her and make her proud, too."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
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