The University of Hawai'i women's soccer team practiced yesterday, toiling under the same hot and sunny conditions, on the same grassy field, as new gold medalist and former Rainbow Wahine Natasha Kai did just a few years ago.

That was not lost on the current players.

"It's amazing," captain and senior defender Tehane Higa said. "It's cool that she's from Hawai'i and she actually got to play.

"And we can say we played with her. So that's really cool, too."

Kai, a three-time Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year out of Kahuku, entered the game for the U.S. in its 1-0 win over Brazil as a substitute 11 minutes into overtime. For the Olympics, she started one game and played in all six as a substitute. She played 199 minutes and scored one goal, with eight shots, including four on goal.

Kai is the first athlete born and raised in Hawai'i to win an Olympic gold medal in 50 years. She is believed to be the first to win gold in a team sport.

Kai played at UH from 2002 to 2005. She left with school records for points (162), goals (72) and shots (446).

Higa, forward Taryn Fukuroku, goalkeeper Kori Lu, and midfielders Alexis Choi, Kelli-Anne Chang and Kristen Oshiro all played with Kai in their freshman year in 2005.

Because the Rainbow Wahine are in training camp, and the Olympic soccer games were played early in the morning in Hawai'i, most of the players were not able to watch.

It didn't stop them from celebrating Kai's gold medal.

"That's sick. I'm pretty jealous of her, I'm not gonna lie," Fukuroku said. "It feels kind of cool. I can say I played with Tasha Kai."

Rainbow Wahine coach Pinsoom Tenzing said he only wishes Kai had more playing time, especially because she scored winning goal in a 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Canada.

"I have maintained that it would be foolish not to play her, because she makes your life easy by doing the hardest thing in the game, and that is scoring goals," Tenzing said.

He was not surprised about her success on the international level because she can score in so many ways.

"The first is going around, as opposed to going down the middle," he said. "You go around, and then you cross, and Tasha can get into the box and she is a terrific header of the ball and she can finish it for you. I've seen her score incredible goals.

"The next is over the defense, and Tasha can get to the ball because of her speed. Her sense of timing is immaculate. The third way is on the ground through the defense, and again, her sense of timing is such that she's the best in the world.

"If you watch many of the games that she played on the international level, when she breaks through, you look at the defenders tracking back, they are way up field," Tenzing added. "She is so much faster and her sense of timing, her speed, is such that she's way ahead of the game. The last aspect of playing up top is beating defenders in front of you, and with that she needed some work, but three out of four is not bad."

Fukuroku hopes that Kai's showing in the Olympics has a lasting impact on the UH program and the sport.

"It's good that they won, because she came from Hawai'i and it brings more publicity and hopefully we can get better players who will want to come here, too," Fukuroku said.

"I think players from Hawai'i are getting better and actually making it to the big time. Little kids can think they can make it past college now. I don't think anyone thought about anything higher than college, so it's good that she made it."