Tuesday was a travel day for UH-Hilo’s women’s soccer team for the NCAA D-II tournament, and its ownership of the Pacific West Conference’s awards highlighted just how far the program has come.
It was a bonanza, really, as UHH snagged four of the six top accolades, with Daelenn Tokunaga taking Player of the Year and Gene Okamura Coach of the Year.
Filippa Graneld was the Newcomer of the Year and Viviana Poli was tabbed the Goalkeeper of the Year, and those two joined Tokunaga an Jodie Lillie on the all-PacWest first yeam. Alyssa Padron and Christy Jensen were named to the second team, and Bailee Brennan grabbed a spot on the third team.
The Vulcans have only had one other Player of the Year, Karen Weatherby, a co-winner in 2006. The program’s only other Newcomer of the Year was Vanessa Butin in 2007.
Tokunaga led the PacWest in goals and scoring, with 13 goals and four assists (30 points). The striker leads the NCAA West Region in goals scored and goals scored per match (0.92). Her 13 goals were just one more score than Seattle Pacific’s Makena Rietz and Western Washington’s Jenna Kilman tallied, but her goals per match are significantly higher than both. The Waipahu, Oahu, native and Hawaii transfer had seven game-winning goals in 2021, and more than half of her shots on goal (21) landed in the net.
Okamura, a Waiakea High alum, guided his alma mater to its first conference trophy and NCAA appearance, despite being picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches poll. The Vulcans are one win shy of a school-record 13 victories, but have already clinched the program’s best winning percentage. His career record with the UHH women is now 40-30-15.
Graneld, a transfer from Pac-12 Colorado, was second on the Vulcans in scoring with five goals and five assists (15 points). She worked her way into scoring position often, firing 55 shots and 25 lasers on goal, both listing second in the Pacific West Conference.
She had two assists in a match earlier this season against Hawaii Pacific, and had game winning scores against San Francisco State and HPU.
Lillie is the Vulcan most familiar with her award. The Junior defender was a First Team All-PacWest pick as a freshman in 2018, she earned Second Team honors as a sophomore (2019) and was an All-Hawaii Pod pick this past spring. She helped lead a stout Vulcan defense this year that gave up just seven goals in 14 matches (0.50 per match). She led UH Hilo in minutes played with 1,230. The Mililani native has started every match in her Vulcan career.
Poli, a transfer from Biola, was the last stop for that Vulcans’ wall of a defense.
She had 42 saves on the season and has a 0.53 goals against average heading into the NCAA tournament. Her save percentage of .857 was first in the conference and the Covina, Calif. native’s GAA lists second in the PacWest. She is the first-ever Vulcan to be named the PacWest Goalkeeper of the Year. She is a junior.
Padron had three goals on the year and four assists (10 points), despite playing in just 10 matches. She had two goals and an assist in the home finale against Hawaii Pacific, posting both goals within 60 seconds of each other. She also had two assists in a match at Holy Names. The San Pedro, Calif. native is a first-year player for the Vulcans, transferring from UC Davis. J
Jensen is in her third season for the Vulcans after transferring form Sierra College. She was an All-Hawaii Pod pick last spring and is another key defender on that Vulcan defense. The Pleasanton, Calif. native averaged 79 minutes a match.
Brennan is a junior from Carlsbad, Calif., who transferred to UH-Hilo from UC San Diego.
She was another wall defender on that UHH defense that allowed just seven goals. She started in every match (14) and was third on the Vulcans in minutes played with 1,142.
The four first-team selections are the most in school history, as are the seven overall selections.