(photo of Daelenn Tokunaga taken by Andrew Lee of Hawaii Media Source)

HONOLULU, Oahu--The UH Hilo women's soccer team is red hot and rollin' right now, and probably the last thing head coach Gene Okamura and his team needs is a couple of weeks off.

But that's what they will get after a 3-0 non-conference victory over Chaminade on Thursday morning at St. Louis Field. The Vulcans (3-2), now winners of three straight while also outscoring their opponents 8-0 during that string, won't play against until September 29 when they host Azusa Pacific to open Pacific West Conference play.

The Vulcans were sharp on both ends of the field today, using a pair of goals by Daelenn Tokunaga and a shutout by the defense and goalkeeper Viviana Poli to dash to the win. 

Tokunaga, the leader scorer in the PacWest, had goals in the 37th and 57th minutes. Silje Vigeland scored her first goal as a Vulcan (56:05) and Piper Collado had a pair of assists. Tokunaga, a transfer from nearby Hawai`i Manoa, now has five goals in five matches and four in her last pair.

Poli had a pair of saves in playing the first 78 minutes of the match before being relieved by Saydee Bacdad. The Vulcan defense was busy, diverting ten Chaminade shots (two on goal). The Vulcans also had ten shots, six of them on goal.

There was plenty of action early. Both teams had shots in the opening minutes, including a UHH shot by Filippi Graneld that Silversword keeper Naomi Takata had to make a diving stop on . In the opening moments, UH Hilo's Poli came out of the box to making a diving block in a one-on-one situation. 

UH Hilo finally broke through at 36:26 when Graneld sent a pass to Christian Kanellou in a pack of players, who then flicked the ball to Tokunaga. The Vulcan forward then fired a shot over the top of Takata to the center of the goal to make it 1-0.

That was the score at the break, but the Vulcans didn't take to long to get on the board again, and even less to score a third goal. Vigeland punched a shot in through a scrum of players after being led by Collado to make it 2-0 at 56:05. Literally less than a minute later, Collado's pass led to another Vulcan goal off the foot of Tokunaga (56:55).

Chaminade applied plenty of pressure after that, firing three shots in the next three minutes but couldn't penetrate the Vulcan goal. The Silverswords are now 1-2 on the season.

The Vulcans will open PacWest play on Sept. 29 against APU. Start time is noon, and the site will be Hall Stadium (baseball field) on the UHH campus. Fans will not be allowed at the playing field, but a video stream will be available.

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