IRVINE, California – A banner year for the 2021 UH Hilo women's soccer team led to a bounty of awards given by the Pacific West Conference, announced today by the league office.
Gene Okamura was selected by his peers as the PacWest Coach of the Year, Daelenn Tokunaga was named the Player of the Year, Filippa Graneld is the Newcomer of the Year and Viviana Poli was tabbed the Goalkeeper of the Year.
Tokunaga, Graneld, Poli and Jodie Lillie were all named to the PacWest First Team. Alyssa Padron and Christy Jensen earned PacWest Second Team honors and Bailee Brennan grabbed a Third Team certificate.
The Vulcans finished the regular season with a 12-3 record and 9-1 mark in the PacWest, co-champions of the conference with Point Loma. Today, the Vulcans are making their first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament, flying to the Pacific Northwest as the No. 5 seed, taking on No. 4 Sonoma State in Seattle.
A season of historic milestones now also extends to Pacific West Conference awards. The Vulcans have only had one other PacWest 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, and they have never had a Coach of the Year or Goalkeeper of the Year.
"I am just so proud of Coach Okamura, his staff and these young ladies on this historic season," said Vulcan athletic director Patrick Guillen. "They've worked so hard and overcome so much adversity to get to this point. These are lifelong experiences and memories that will be with them forever. I know that they will represent UH HIlo, our community and State of Hawai`i well."
Okamura guided his squad to their 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. This is Okamura's sixth season as the Vulcan team leader and he also previously coached both the UHH men and women's teams. Prior to being the head coach of both programs, he was an assistant for both for three seasons. He has been a Vulcan since the programs began, playing on the very first UH Hilo men's team in 2006. His career record with the UHH women is now 40-30-15.
Tokunaga led the PacWest in goals and scoring, with 13 goals and four assists (30 points). In fact, she 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 (12), but her goals per match are significantly higher than both. The Waipahu native (Pearl City HS) and University of Hawai`i transfer had seven game-winning goals in 2021, and more than half of her shots on goal (21) landed in the net. She is just a junior this season.
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. The Stockholm, Sweden native is a sophomore.
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 Vulcan wall of a defense. She had 42 saves on the season and has a 0.53 Goals Against Average heading into the NCAA playoffs. Her save percentage of .857 was first in the conference and the Covina, Calif. (South Hills HS) 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.
Second Team selection 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 (Palos Verdes HS) is a first-year player for the Vulcans, transferring from UC Davis (sophomore). Jensen is a senior and 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. (Foothill HS) native averaged 79 minutes a match.
Brennan is a junior from Carlsbad, Calif. (Sage Creek HS) 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.
UH Hilo's four First Team selections is the most in school history, as is their seven overall selections.
