This week, Mari Punzal of Kapa‘a saw snow and a waterfall that was frozen over. That’s because the University of Hawai‘i freshman is in Boulder, Colo., gearing up for the Rainbow Wahine’s inaugural appearance in the NCAA Soccer Championships. “It’s
This week, Mari Punzal of Kapa‘a saw snow and a waterfall that was frozen over.
That’s because the University of Hawai‘i freshman is in Boulder, Colo., gearing up for the Rainbow Wahine’s inaugural appearance in the NCAA Soccer Championships.
“It’s pretty unreal,” the midfielder said. “I’m really speechless about this. You don’t really expect something like this in your first year.”
The Rainbow Wahine (15-4-2), the Western Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament champs, are on a five-game winning streak going into today’s game against host University of Colorado (9-4-4).
“We’re nervous, but we don’t want to be,” Punzal said.
Punzal is enjoying her first year of collegiate play and thinks that part of their success is due to their chemistry.
“We all get along and we’re all friends,” she said. “We got together over the summer and were conditioning together. It’s really good. There’s no drama. It’s been fun.”
This is the Rainbow Wahine’s first-ever appearance in an NCAA tournament in its 14th season as a Division I program. They won its tournament bid when they defeated Fresno State at the WAC tournament on Sunday.
Fellow Kaua‘i player Emma Makepa-Foley scored the winning goal in the 59th minute to give Hawai‘i the victory. Foley could not make it to today’s game and is currently back at the university.
The Rainbow Wahine shattered more than 30 school records during the season including new single-season standards for wins (15), shutouts (12) and goals (59).
Today’s game will start at 8 a.m. HST.
No. 2 Portland and Denver will meet up in the other first-round match in Boulder, Colo.
The winners will advance to the second round on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Portland (15-3), the 2005 NCAA champion, is ranked in the top three in all major polls and enters the tournament as a two seed. Denver (13-4-4) earned an automatic bid as the Sun Belt champion and boast an upset win over then-No. 1 Stanford, earlier this year.
