Posted on: Friday, November 2, 2001
Wahine beat Spartans, qualify for WAC tourney
By Kyle Sakamoto
Advertiser Staff Writer
The University of Hawai'i women's soccer team had a player advantage for the second straight home match, and this time it was able to take advantage of it.
Arlene Devitt scored a sudden-death goal 11 minutes into overtime as Hawai'i defeated San Jose State, 2-1, in a Western Athletic Conference match before 710 last night at the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Park.
The victory qualified Hawai'i (8-9, 4-3) for the WAC Tournament to be held Nov. 8-10 at Dallas.
"I'm proud because we're a good team and we belong in the WAC (tournament)," Devitt said.
Pam Fong's cross from the left side was received by Devitt in the penalty box and she put the game-winner past reserve goal keeper Trisha Forni from 10 yards out. At the time, UH had a 10-9 player advantage.
"(Devitt) undoubtedly is our go-to person up top," UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing said. "She is special."
San Jose State scored first on an unassisted goal by Kerry Blaschke at 4:46. Jessica Korpela took a shot that deflected off UH defender Liz Lusk and off the left post. Blaschke was in front of the net for the easy putback.
The turning point of the match occurred at 8:11 when Devitt had a breakaway and was tripped up by goal keeper Eryn Meyer just in front of the penalty box. Meyer received a red card and was ejected.
"I guess the rule is if you take out the last person it's a red card," San Jose State coach Tamie Grimes said. "I thought she was going for the ball myself."
Devitt tied the match at 1 with an unassisted goal at 11:08. A corner kick by Krystalynn Ontai deflected to Devitt who faked a shot, cut left and put one past Forni from 10 yards out.
Devitt received a yellow card for arguing with the referee at 70:53 and was taken out by Tenzing. She returned at 80:36.
"After having sat down 10-15 minutes she was fine," Tenzing said. "She's too valuable for us to lose for this game. Without her we wouldn't have scored that (game-winning) goal."
The Wahine had a 10-9 player advantage at 88:30 when UH's Tiffany Makue and San Jose State's Ryanne Banks received red card ejections for shoving.
"It's not easy to play down a player the entire match," Grimes said. "Seems like every time we come to Hawai'i we get that welcome of playing down a person."
The match had 33 fouls, three red cards and four yellow cards.
"Every time we come to Hawai'i it's poor refereeing," Grimes said. "It's always physical. We knew that coming in. I told my team be prepared for it to be physical. Be prepared to not get one call."
Tenzing said: "It was on both sides. I wasn't happy at the way Arlene received that yellow card. Sometimes they (referees) see things we don't see."
On Oct. 21, UH had a player advantage against SMU for about 60 minutes, but fell 3-1.
Tenzing was once again disappointed at the Wahine's play with a player advantage.
"It's a difficult thing to put on the field because you never practice that situation," he said. "We still weren't pushing the ball around enough to use the man superiority."
The Spartans dropped to 5-13 and 3-6.
