KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With two more wins added to its belt, Hawai’i Hilo women’s soccer moved up two spots to No. 23 in the latest United Soccer Coaches Top 25 National Rankings released Tuesday morning.
After entering the top 25 for the first time this season, the Vulcans notched victories over Academy of Art and Dominican during the last week. Hawai’i Hilo also moved up one spot to No. 4 in the United Soccer Coaches West Region Rankings.
Other Pacific West Conference mates slotted ahead are No. 6 Concordia Irvine (7-0-1) and reigning national champion No. 15 Point Loma (7-1-1). With the addition of three schools to the PacWest creating a new scheduling format, the Vulcans are not set to face-off with either team during the regular season. The top four teams in the conference will battle in the inaugural PacWest Conference Championships postseason tournament set for Nov. 14-16 at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California.
Women’s hoops schedule released
A 28-game slate awaits the Hawai’i Hilo women’s basketball team, including two exhibitions against Division-I opponents right at home at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
The Vulcans open the season by hosting UH Manoa for an exhibition at 2 p.m. Oct. 27 before starting official competition with a home non-conference matchup against HPU (Nov. 10). Hawai’i Hilo will not leave the state until its first Pacific West Conference road trip in late January. Included in the non-conference home stand is four matches as part of the annual Big Island Holiday Classic during Thanksgiving week and near the end of December.
The second Division-I exhibition features Eastern Kentucky at 6 p.m. Dec. 11.
With the addition of three new members to the PacWest Conference, the regular season will no longer be formatted for equal home and away contests. This winter, the Vulcans will only have single matchups against Westmont, Biola, Azusa Pacific, Vanguard, Fresno Pacific and Dominican.
The top six teams will once again qualify for the PacWest Conference Championships postseason tournament set for March 6-8 at Dominican’s Conlan Center in San Rafael, California.
Last season, Hawai’i Hilo made a late push by taking victories in seven of its last nine contests but just narrowly missed out on a trip to the postseason tournament.
No. 25 Vulcans answer back
The No. 25 Hawai’i Hilo Women’s Soccer team found themselves down on the scoreboard for the first time this season but answered the call to flip the score and claim a 4-2 victory over Dominican Sunday afternoon in Pacific West Conference play at the Vulcan Soccer Field.
Jazlynn Ellis factored into three of the Vulcans’ scores, netting both the game-tying and insurance goals while assisting on the game-winner by Teani Arakawa just a few minutes into the second half. Ellis leads the conference in goals (three) and points (eight) early through the PacWest season (conference-only matches).
The Penguins got on the scoreboard early with a tap-in by Jackie Lancaster in the fifth minute, but the Vulcans answered back just mere moments later with fifth-year transfer Shea Christiansen blasting through her first collegiate score off a corner-kick header attempt from Alyssa Padron that deflected off of the goalkeeper.
Ellis’ first goal was an odd sequence of events as Filippa Graneld drilled a cross in from a left corner kick and ricocheted it off the goalkeeper’s head to the backside of Ellis and in for the score. On the game-winner assist, Ellis sent a cross from the left side that again deflected off of the goalkeeper for Arakawa to clean up for her sixth goal of the season.
In the 68th minute, Diana Garcia launched deep from 35 yards out and was met with the crossbar, but Ellis found herself front and center for another finish through the back of the net to close the scoring.
No. 25 Hawai’i Hilo moved to a 3-0-0 record in the PacWest (6-0-2 overall) as Dominican moved to a 1-3-0 conference record (4-5-1 overall).
The Vulcans continue their homestand hosting Jessup (Saturday) and Menlo (Tuesday) at the Vulcan Soccer Field.
Top four teams in the regular season standings will qualify for the first PacWest Conference Championships postseason tournament set for Nov. 14-16 at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California.
In the United Soccer Coaches Division II Rankings released last Tuesday, Hawai’i Hilo came in at the No. 25 spot in the Top 25 Week 4 Poll, earning its first national ranking of the season.
The Vulcans also moved up one spot in the West Regional poll to No. 5 — reclaiming their original slot in the preseason poll.
Ellis wins PacWest Player of the Week
Jazzlyn Ellis helped supply the offensive ammunition to power the then-newly-ranked Hawai’i Hilo women’s soccer team with two goals and two assists in two victories to earn Pacific West Conference Player of the Week.
The redshirt-senior assisted on the third goal of a 3-0 shutout of Academy of Art (Oct. 1) and found the back of the net twice with an assist on the game-winner in a 4-2 win over Dominican (Oct. 6). All this came after previously netting the game-winner for her first score of the season in a 2-1 victory over HPU on Sept. 28.
“Just being patient and trusting the runs we were making were the right runs,” Ellis said of her mindset heading into the previous week of action. “We just needed to clean up in front of the goal and we were able to do that a little better this week.”
The Colorado native is also coming off her first full season of action, having transferred in for the spring 2023 semester after spending two and a half years at Division-I University of Illinois Chicago where she was plagued with injuries. The redshirt-senior totaled 21 points last fall and was named PacWest Conference Newcomer of the Year along with All-Region and All-Conference honors.
“Last season felt really amazing and I wanted to come in this season and do even more for the team. I just wanted to be an impact player and know that when I’m on the field, I’m somebody my teammates want to be on the field and also have the ball,” Ellis said. “But we just want to win. It doesn’t matter who’s putting the ball in the back of the net.”
Ellis also took up the rare student-athlete opportunity of studying abroad, having spent this past spring semester in Norway.
“Coming in after studying abroad last semester, I felt like I had a chip on my shoulder,” Ellis said. “I wanted to come back and be someone the program needed. I didn’t feel like this would be successful unless my teammates had my back, and they did. I was most worried about being this “big-time player with all these accolades” but leaving in the off-season and coming back and not performing. Last year’s stats don’t matter anymore. This season ahead is what matters most.”
Ellis and the No. 23 Vulcans continue action with two home matches set for Oct. 12 (Jessup) and Oct. 15 (Menlo) before heading to Southern California for a four-game road trip.
Men’s soccer falls
One goal was all the difference as Hawai’i Hilo men’s soccer fell to Dominican, 1-0, Sunday afternoon in Pacific West Conference action at the Vulcan Soccer Field.
The Vulcans finished at a 13-9 total in shots (5-4 on goal), but it was Lex Bernier’s conversion in the 18th minute that gave the Penguins the game-winner. Hawai’i Hilo was coming out of a goal kick and an errant pass allowed Bernier to come away with a snatch and score from the top of the penalty arc.
Perhaps Hawai’i Hilo’s closest scoring opportunities came in the opening moments of the second half when it fired off three shots on goal through the first nine minutes of action.