As the University of Hawai'i women's soccer team prepares to play its only scheduled ranked opponent, other concerns occupy coach Pinsoom Tenzing's mind.

The Rainbow Wahine play No. 18 Pepperdine in the Outrigger Hotels & Resorts Soccer Classic tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Stadium. Hawai'i faces Eastern Michigan on Sunday at 5 p.m., and Pepperdine and Eastern Michigan face off Saturday at 7 p.m.

Tenzing is still trying to find the right combinations in the midfield to replace starting central midfielders Jessica Domingo and Gabrielle Bohlman.

Domingo (left) and Bohlman (right) injured their knees in the season-opening victory against George Mason last Friday.

Domingo is expected to be out at least two weeks, and the extent of Bohlman's injury has yet to be determined. With a month before the Western Athletic Conference season begins, Tenzing hopes to have both back in time.

"You never want to have injuries, but if you are going to have it, it is better now than during the WAC season. It's the lesser of two evils," he said.

Tenzing said he would be shuffling players in and out, and is "going to try to use as many kids as I can."

Hawai'i will attempt to stop a team carrying momentum. Pepperdine (2-0), which includes Hawai'i natives Kelsey Baker of Punahou and Ashlee Doi of Mililani, beat then-No. 28 Central Florida and then-No. 18 Arizona in home games last weekend.

Last season, it went 9-7-3, including 1-4-2 in the highly competitive West Coast Conference, and leads the series with Hawai'i 3-0.

"I'm expecting an extremely well-coached team who is taking us very seriously," Tenzing said. "Regardless of the physical condition of the team, we are going to give them a good game."

As for Eastern Michigan (1-1), Tenzing said he knows nothing about the team that went 10-7-3 last year, and finished seventh (6-4-2) in the Mid-American Conference.

"That's the hazard of playing some one so far away," said Tenzing of the Eagles, who return 16 letterwinners and nine starters.

He hopes to strengthen the midfield defense, which took a hit without the speedy and steady duo of Domingo and Bohlman.

"We're going to try and shore up our midfield defense, with the forwards playing a little more defense," Tenzing said. "We'll see what happens. We've got some significant players up top and I'm hoping (opposing teams) have to worry about them a lot."

He credited sophomore defender Shawn Higa with solid organization in Monday's "patchwork" midfield in a 1-0 loss to BYU.

"There were numbers around the ball all game long for both games, and they played against a really terrific team," he said. "I thought she organized the defense extremely well."

He said the defense is "passing the test, but offensively we need to get into our groove. We have grand designs and just now we're bogged down with injuries."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.