HONOLULU — Bernadette Doyle’s active hands swiped an upset opportunity from Long Beach State in a key Big West contest at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex on Saturday night.
The All-American from New Zealand stole the ball twice in overtime and scored off both, including the golden goal in No. 3 Hawaii’s 9-8 victory over the No. 6 Beach.
The Beach won the sprint in the sudden death OT and called timeout to set up a shot at the win. But Doyle, defending on the perimeter, saw an opening and seized the ball from the Beach’s Elisa Portillo.
Doyle took off with the ball with the Beach in pursuit. She absorbed a foul from behind and kept right on going to about 10 feet in front of the goal and launched a left-handed shot that skipped under goalkeeper Chelsea Oliver and in.
“I just went for it. Stoked that it ended up with the goal,” Doyle told Spectrum News. “I saw (Portillo) kind of went a little bit to the side, and I just went for it. A little bit risky, but sometimes it pays off right?”
It was a vital win for first-year coach James Robinson and UH (13-3, 3-0 Big West), which needed to hold serve in its pool to back up marquee wins over Cal and UCLA at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational in late February.
LBSU (11-9, 2-1) rallied with two goals in the fourth quarter to send it to overtime. Both teams had opportunities to win in the final minute of regulation but had their attacks snuffed out. Roni Perlman’s lob shot at the buzzer for UH caromed off the far post.
In the first overtime period Doyle, a senior attacker, stripped Oliver in front of the goal and tossed the ball into the net after UH appeared to have been stopped on the possession.
LBSU answered with a strike from Martina Cordona at the other end. Neither team scored in the second three-minute OT and the teams went into the sudden-death extra period.
Doyle was flanked by her younger sister, freshman Gabrielle Doyle on the decisive play, but no one impeded her so she took the shot herself to finish with a hat trick.
“I saw my sister just to the left of me, and I knew that I was either going to go play the ball, go to the goal, or the opponent jumped to me. … I was definitely going for the goal in the end."
It was UH’s first instant-winner since goalie Bridget Layburn’s length-of-the-pool toss beat Cal in 2023.
Freshman Ema Vernoux also scored a hat trick for UH, which improved to 3-0 in overtime games ths season.
UH hosts Pacific (9-7) in a nonconference match on Saturday.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
